Sandi Hilal is an architect, researcher and co-founder of DAAR in Beit Sahour/Stockholm. She was born in Palestine and pursued her architecture education in Italy. She completed her Master’s degree at La Sapienza University in Rome and her PhD at the University of Trieste. She was an Assistant Professor of Fine Art and Urban Studies at the University of Architecture in Venice. 2007 she founded together with Alessandro Petti and Eyal Weizman DAAR (Decolonizing Architecture Art Residency). The architectural collective combines multiple disciplines such as architecture, art, urbanism politics and pedagogy to create conceptual speculations, spatial interventions, discourses and collective learning, such as the project “Campus in Camps” in Bethlehem. Hilal’s work has been exhibited in many prestigious institutions worldwide, such as the Biennale in Venice, Istanbul and São Paulo, and been featured in international newspapers and magazines. The collective has received multiple awards and grants for their critical research engaged in the struggle for justice and equality and published different books.

Sofia Thorsson is a professor of natural geography at the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Gothenburg and the Lise Meitner visiting professor for Housing Development and Management at the Department of Architecture and Built Environment at Lund University since 2020. Her research areas are urban climatology, thermal outdoor comfort and the influence of weather on urban life. Another research subject is how urban climates will change as a result of global warming and how cities can adapt to these changes – with a focus on heat stress and the ability of urban greenery to mitigate it. Sofia has extensive experience of leading and working in inter and trans-disciplinary research projects. Current research projects focus on heat stress and vulnerable groups (pre-school children and the elderly), ecosystem services from urban greenery and multipurpose blue-green infrastructure.