NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Rakhi Mehra is co-founder of micro Home Solutions, a Delhi, India social housing enterprise whose mission is to build inclusive cities based on the interdisciplinary principles of community, affordability and design. Founded in 2009, micro Home Solutions is developing a portfolio of housing solutions, ranging from dormitory shelters, upgrades and rentals to ownership models that are viable and scalable. She focuses on program management and policy advocacy.

She was an intern at the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and worked with Ashoka Fellows in microfinance before joining CARE India as a Program Associate. She led the program design team for tsunami rehabilitation program in Andaman and Nicobar Islands; then spent a year as a consultant with Rabo Bank, India, in agribusiness and microfinance. She earned her MBA from Harvard Business School in 2009. She was awarded the HBS Social Enterprise Fellowship in 2010.

Marco Ferrario, co-founder of micro Home Solutions, favors the minimalist, functional architecture to bring good design where it has never been and where it is needed the most: low-income settlements. In India, he is working with other professionals to promote a multidisciplinary approach in urban planning.

Marco graduated from the Politecnico Di Milano and worked as an architect in Italy. He interned at the Grameen Bank and returned to practice architecture with niche firms in India, Singapore and USA. The Cooper Hewitt Museum in New York selected two of his works- the Modular shelter for homeless and the Design Home Solution to be part of their 2011 exhibition” “Designing With The Other 90 percent.”