Seeds for Regeneration
Seeds for Regeneration is a professional gathering designed to forge close ties between those working in design and two international leaders in the field of regeneration: Jan Boelen and Jenny Andersson.
Jan Boelen, a Belgian curator and designer, runs Atelier Luma in Arles (France), a pioneering laboratory that explores how design can activate the ecological transition of territories, linking creativity, research and community.
Jenny Andersson, a Swedish strategist based in the United Kingdom, founded the Really Regenerative Centre, from where she promotes leadership and transition processes towards fairer and more resilient futures, working with cities, organisations and social movements across Europe.
This meeting is not only a space for inspiration, but also an opportunity to generate connections and alliances — both local and international — that strengthen the design ecosystem in Bizkaia and consolidate the regenerative approach as a driver of eco-social transformation.
Seeds for Regeneration is part of the Biotic Cities Lab / Hiri Biotikoak / Ciudades Bióticas project led by Pez Estudio and funded by the Department of Culture and Language Policy of the Basque Government.
This meeting will be held in English, without translation.
Jenny Andersson is an acclaimed regenerative practitioner of regenerative design and development. Founder of Really Regenerative CIC in 2020, Jenny is passionate about the fractal potential of place as a critical node in transforming economy, ecology and culture towards regenerative futures. Inspired by the principles that have created the conditions conducive to life for 3.8 billion years, everything she does through Really Regenerative CIC seeks to realign human economic and cultural systems to those principles - from place. Whether that is at the scale of neighbourhood, city or bioregion. Her theory of change includes: Developing the evolutionary potential of place; creating Centre For Life which are living entities that hold the course of transformative change; Regenerative Practice which is learning to apply the managing processes for transformative change - all working together towards regenerative futures.
Jan Boelen (1967, Belgium) is a curator of design, architecture, and contemporary art. He is the artistic director of Atelier LUMA, an experimental platform that seeks to co-develop new ways of producing and caring for a bioregion, using design as a tool for ecological and social transition. Boelen studied Product Design at in Genk and is the founder and former artistic director of Z33 – House for contemporary art in Hasselt, Belgium. He was founder of the Master Social design at the Design Academy of Eindhoven till 2020 and Rektor of the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design from 2019 till 2023. In 2014 he curated BIO50, the design biennal of Ljubljana in Slovenia. He was curator of the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial in Istanbul (2018) and initiated Manifesta 9 in Belgium (2012). Lastly, Boelen curated the Lithuanian Pavilion Planet of People in the Venice Architecture Biennial (2021).
Over the years he has been fashioning projects and exhibitions that encourage the visitor to look at everyday objects in a novel manner.
Boelen recently edited Social Matter, Social Design: For Good or Bad, all Design is Social (Valiz, 2020), and Muller Van Severen: Dialogue (Walther Koenig, 2021) and Atelier Luma, Bioregional design practices (Luma, 2023) His writing addresses the implications of design in everyday life and how artistic practices can shape the discipline.
Pez Estudio is the team of architects curating BBDW25. Since 2006, they have been developing design, architecture, urban planning and action research projects with an ecological, social, participatory and innovative approach. They promote minimising people's impact on the environment, developing inclusive cities, using biological systems and natural materials, and creating contexts for collaboration.
Their work has been internationally recognized by entities such as Arquia Próxima, the Caribbean Architecture Biennial, the Santo Domingo Architecture Biennial, and the Holcim Awards Foundation. Their work has been developed in various institutions and programs at an international level, such as the Venice Architecture Biennale, MoMA in New York, the Shenzhen Architecture Biennale, Medialab-Prado, and Intermediae Matadero Madrid.
Elisa de los Reyes García is an architect and co-founder of Pez Estudio, the Wikitoki collaborative practices laboratory in Bilbao, and the Inteligencias Colectivas / Zoohaus project. She teaches on the Master's Degree in Service Design at IED Kunsthal. She has given lectures and workshops in Europe and America (Parsons The New School NY, MoMA NY, Matadero Madrid, Medialab Prado, CCE in Lima, Santo Domingo, Chile, etc.).
