Stephen Cairns completed an undergraduate degree in anthropology and classical studies at the University of Otago. He trained in architecture at the University of Auckland, and practiced as an architect in New Zealand, Australia and the Pacific, designing the award-​winning Headquarters for the Secretariat of the Pacific Community in Noumea. He subsequently undertook doctoral studies at the University of Melbourne, where he wrote a thesis on the colonial architecture in Java, with an emphasis on aesthetics and the politics of representation.

Devisari Tunas is the Scenario Coordinator for the Archipelago Cities at the Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) of the Singapore-​ETH Centre. Trained as an architect and urban planner, she obtained her Ph.D. degree in Urbanism from Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands) and Master's degree in both “Conservation of historic buildings and towns”, and “Social and cultural anthropology” from Katholieke Universitet Leuven (Belgium).