The Funambulist has the ambition to bridge the disciplines of architecture and design with those of the humanities. It does so in proposing a resolutely decolonial, antiracist, feminist, queer, antinormative approach in its reading of the built environment politics. Each issue is dedicated to one topic in particular mobilizing various scales (from urbanism to clothing via architecture) and diverse geographical contexts. Texts constitute a major component of the publication, but so does photography—and to a lesser extent, design—through the recurrent student project section that ends each issue. The quality of dialogue between contributions in the magazine is often reproduced through events involving from one to four contributors in various cities of the world. The magazine is complemented by hundreds of articles on its blog, more than a hundred interviews on its podcast, as well as 11 pamphlets and two books.

Léopold Lambert is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Funambulist. He is an architect who has lived and worked in Paris, Hong Kong, Mumbai, and New York. He combines the activities of editing, writing, curating, podcasting, designing, cartographing, and photographing to serve an editorial line insisting on architects' political responsibility and the tremendous role played by architecture in our societies. He deliberately does not hold any academic position but enjoys engaging with people (professors and students) who do. He is the author of Weaponized Architecture: The Impossibility of Innocence (dpr-barcelona, 2012), The Funambulist Pamphlets Volumes 1–11 (punctum, 2013–15), Topie Impitoyable: The Corporeal Politics of the Cloth, the Wall, and the Street (punctum, 2015), and La politique du bulldozer: La ruine palestinienne comme projet israélien (B2, 2016). He is the editor of The Funambulist Papers Volumes 1–2 (punctum, 2013–15), as well as the tenth first issues of The Funambulist magazine (2015–17).

Noelle Geller is an American student currently pursuing her MA in arts and cultural management at IESA International Paris. Interested in the relationship between the arts and accessibility, she sees the role of design and politics as crucial to addressing issues in these fields. She holds a BA in literature and has worked with public programs and art education in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other cities. Since starting at The Funambulist in December of 2016, she has contributed as a part-time assistant to the publication of each issue.

Founded on July 17, 2015, the mission of The Funambulist is to propagate its editorial line through its eponymous online publication and other communicative means (blog, podcast, lectures, books, and articles).