Mariana Pestana is Invited Assistant Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico and researcher at ITI (Interactive Technologies Institute) where she currently acts as Arts & Culture Coordinator on the Bauhaus of the Seas Sails project. Architect and co-founder of The Decorators, Mariana’s research investigates fiction as a device for critical thinking and for imagining alternative futures. She designs spaces and situations that test possible scenarios and rehearse more-than-human empathic relations. She holds a PhD in Architectural Design from the Bartlett School of Architecture (2019), an MA in Narrative Environments from Central Saint Martins, UAL supported by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (2010) and is formed in Architecture from FAUP, University of Porto (2006). Co-director of the interdisciplinary studio The Decorators, Mariana was the curator and author of the 5th Istanbul Design Biennial titled "Empathy Revisited: designs for more than one" (Onomatopee, 2021), "Fiction Practice" (Onomatopee, 2020), "Eco-Visionaries" (MAAT, Lisbon, Matadero, Madrid and Royal Academy, London), and "The Future Starts Here" (V&A, 2018). She worked as a curator at the Department of Architecture, Design and Digital at the V&A Museum and lectured at Central Saint Martins and Chelsea College of Arts among other universities in the UK, Netherlands and Portugal. Her research work was shown at the Venice Architecture Biennial, Stanley Picker Gallery, Jardins Efémeros, Festival Walk & Talk and Shenzhen Biennial Bi-City of Urbanism and Architecture, and her curatorial work was published in The Guardian, Financial Times, New York Times as well as specialised media such as Frieze, Wallpaper, Icon or Architects Journal.