AVA XIA

Ava is a Manchu-Han Chinese environmental researcher and designer based in London. Her practice employs multimedia counter-cartographic methods—including low-tech sonic experiments, hybrid drawings, and in-field co-creation—to explore the cultural and political dimensions of landscapes.

She holds an MA in Environmental Architecture from the Royal College of Art. Her academic research challenges conventional notions of movement, borders, and fieldwork across nomadic and planetary landscapes. These investigations span social, territorial, technological, sonic, and ecological architectures, tracing the circulatory relationships between human and more-than-human collectives.

As an independent researcher, her recent work explores England's chalk stream folkloric imaginaries as a framework for community-based ecological restoration and reciprocity. Alongside this, she engages with environmental justice and Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) through collaborations with research collectives, including INTERPRT and the Territorial Investigation Group, as well as NGOs such as Vergers du Monde. She is currently a Design and Research Fellow at the Lo—TEK Office.