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 2026 Meeting
DIALOG WITH THE ISLAND
Forms of life, inhabitants, and the making of a shared horizon
Research expedition organized with
Marion Nielsen (EnsadLab-PSL, Paris), Laura Imbriani & Fabrizio Lampis (Supercake Architecture and Design, Milan), Inês Moreira (CEAA, Porto) and Jens Denissen (landscape architect and political scientist, Bourges)
Date: 29/04-02/05/2026
Call for participants:
We came, as archivists of oblivion, hunters of lost stories, guardians of silent landscapes, to understand what transformations have occurred in a 24-hectare abandoned fish farming plot—le peschiere—that first called us to Sant'Erasmo.
We walked the abandoned land, mapped their silent canals, and watched ducks parade through the water that once held dreams of captive bream. We found innumerable trees growing where no one planted them. We traced the ruins of old military trenches now guarding the parade canals. We let the wild teach us how slowly a place forgets its human uses.
This path opened a few questions: Who lives this transformation now—and who will live it next?
We return to meet the surface in all its living texture.
Sant'Erasmo holds agricultural rhythms, forgotten knowledge, and people who have never stopped dialoguing with this land—quietly, daily.
We´ll meet with the inhabitants: farmers, long-time residents, seasonal caretakers, fishermen, and those who carry oral histories of the 1990 abandonment —the year the last hands left le peschiere.
We´ll explore their lifestyle, their fields, their daily negotiations with salt and fresh water.
We`ll ask: what does this island feel like to those who will inherit it? What do they dream for it? How might Sant’Erasmo—through its inhabitants, its lands, its waters, and its muds—teach us new ways of dwelling?
We`ll settle into the island's rhythm again. Walk the edges. Breathe the salt. Begin to slow down to the speed of soil and tide.
We will learn its specific characteristics—the microclimates, soil compositions, water cycles, and the unique biodiversity that emerges where farming meets abandonment, and dreams of aquaculture now sleep, reclaimed by wild roots and feathered feet.
Our approach is grounded in situated practices—working through observation, surveying, and direct engagement with the land and its ecosystems.
We pay attention to what is already there: existing knowledge, traces, and forms of life. Rather than transforming, we begin by listening, documenting, and learning how to relate. Fieldwork becomes a space of exchange—where experiences, gestures, and stories are shared, and where the immaterial can be held, archived, and transmitted.
Since the first expedition, our team has grown.
New voices and ways of paying attention have joined us. We invite you into this widening circle.
Whether you are curious or carry deep knowledge of this land—whether you are a farmer, a fisherman, a naturalist, an artist, a historian, a dreamer, or someone who simply feels called by the wild liveliness of abandoned places—come share with us. Come listen with us.
We will learn in dialogue with the island—and with 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.
