Mariana Pestana is an architect, researcher and independent curator, exploring critical, social and fictional dimensions of design for an age marked by technological progress and an ecological crisis. Since 2010, she is co-director of The Decorators, an interdisciplinary studio that makes collaborative cultural programmes with the aim to expand notions of place, community and commensality. She holds a PhD in Architectural Design from the Bartlett School of Architecture. In 2018, Mariana co-curated The Future Starts Here (Victoria and Albert Museum) and in 2019 she co-curated Eco Visionários: Arte e Arquitectura Depois do Antropoceno (MAAT, Lisbon, Matadero, Madrid e Royal Academy, London) and edited Fiction Practice: Prototyping the Otherworldly (Onomatopee). Currently, she is the curator of the 5th Istanbul Design Biennial (2020-21), works as Assistant Professor of Design at School of Communication, Arts and Information Technologies, ULHT and is vice-director of the Center for Other Worlds.