“The future lies in the rural.” —Radical? Rose-tinted Romanticisation? or is there Real potential?

As the future minds behind the world of the built environment, how can we build enterprises and structures that are not only good for the community but actually make it profitable to care about the planet? How can we tap into the knowledge base of global south societies with decades of inherited knowledge to affect real change in community capacities? Come hear from Thein Sowrirajan, the founder of ‘nonurbanism’, a youth-led social movement as she talks about their action plan that builds on rural technologies and sustainable practices for better communities of tomorrow.

Thein Sowrirajan is an advocate of creating urban-rural entrepreneurial linkages for the less-connected rural communities through conscious action by the youth. As an architect, urban planner, policymaker and designer, she has lived in many countries learning about rural communities, their design sensibilities, and their relevance in current climate action conversations. She initiated the Nonurban Foundation, a youth-led non-profit that focuses on developing entrepreneurship models for rural/ tribal products and designs- designs that have traversed common sense, technique and for many years retained a sensible climate-conscious process from which the world can learn. Currently pursuing her PhD in planning and policy at the Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Thein is working on her doctoral thesis that showcases the benefits of de-legitimizing and de-coupling reliance on the urban by shifting adequate resources towards community entrepreneurship and building/actualizing successful brands around rural-born ideas and skills.