Joana Rafael is an architect practitioner and Postdoctoral Researcher, specializing in ecological concerns related to pollution and contamination, both indoors and in urban planning. Her research explores the intersections of architecture and urbanism with human geography, environmental studies, and power dynamics, encompassing contemporary culture, media studies, art, and technology. She investigates the materiality and limits of physical infrastructures in relation to Earth's systems and the reciprocal relationships between humans and nature, with a particular focus on radiologically contaminated environments. Joana has taught Contextual Studies and Contemporary Culture-related courses at institutions including ESAP in Porto, ISCE Douro in Penafiel, Central Saint Martins in London, and the University for the Creative Arts in Canterbury. She is a member of CEGOT (Center for Studies in Geography and Spatial Planning) and CEAA (Centro de Estudos Arnaldo Araújo), and a co-founder of REFINERY BOARD. Joana holds a Master of Architecture and Urban Cultures from Metropolis, Barcelona, as well as a Master of Research Architecture and a PhD in Visual Cultures from Goldsmiths, University of London. She also earned a Healthier Materials and Sustainable Building Specialization certificate from Parsons School of Design, The New School. In addition to her academic pursuits, Joana is a certified farmer.
Xpedizione 2025 Meeting
OPENING A PATH
Towards a land that blooms without human witnesses
Research expedition organized with
Marion Nielsen (EnsadLab-PSL, Paris), Laura Imbriani & Fabrizio Lampis (Supercake Architecture and Design, Milan)
Date: 19-22/11/2025
Call for participants:
We are archivists of oblivion, hunters of lost stories, and guardians of silent landscapes.
In the Venetian Lagoon, on the island of Sant’Erasmo, we set out to encounter a 24-hectare territory that has been breathing for 34 years without the rhythm of human time—since 1990, when the last human hands abandoned it.
This territory, seemingly forgotten today, still holds traces of human ingenuity: a network of canals—le peschiere—once dedicated to aquaculture, now silent, yet still in dialogue with the surrounding lagoon.
What do these lands hold?
Wild flora? Fragments of other lives? Or perhaps something we don’t yet have a name for?
What transformations have occurred here?
What signs of its biodiversity—past and present—await us?
Among shores and canals, will we encounter the ghosts of its history?
This year marks the first of four major annual expeditions—and we want to invite you to be part of this crossing.
We promise no answers.
We offer a place where questions grow alongside the weeds.
This is a place of immense potential: a natural laboratory for scientists, artists, architects, ecologists, thinkers, and dreamers from all fields.
We come from different geographies—Porto, Paris, Milan, and other corners of Europe—intending to unearth forgotten stories, document the life that persists among the canals, create a living archive of this land, and reimagine our relationship to this landscape.
It will be a field experience, yes, but also an exercise in listening, sharing, and renewing our imaginations.
We will learn from the land—and from one another.
Location
Via dei Forti, Sant’Erasmo, Venice
30–50 minutes from Fondamente Nove (Venice) by vaporetto line 13, stop: Chiesa or Punta Vela (Sant’Erasmo).
Free participation, upon registration via a letter of intent.
Email: xpedizione@gmail.com for more information.
Programme attached.
