Bioregional Sensing (BRS): Confluence in the Upper Po Bioregion

A place-based contribution to the R3.0 Global Conference

8-11 September 2025 | MonViso Institute, Ostana, Italy

This September, we invite you to the MonViso Institute in Ostana for a multi-day gathering rooted in the living landscape of the Po River, and the Upper Po River bioregion. As part of the ongoing MVI Bioregional Sensing series initiative, this encounter blends embodied exploration, systems dialogue, and place-based co-creation—immersing participants in the relational cultural ecologies that shape regenerative futures.

The gathering is designed in resonance with the simultaneously and virtually happening, global R3.0 Annual Conference, whose decentralized Confluence format invites aligned initiatives worldwide to contribute their local perspectives.

Here in Ostana, we follow the virtual main conference while exploring what it means to sense and steward bioregional potential through systemic design, community engagement, and shared experimentation: conference input will stimulate reflective talks while hiking the surrounding peaks and dining around the camp fire; visual dialogues, community engagements, hands-on design practice on campus with some collaborative tasks, and the intense alpine nature will create unforgettable experiences.

 

 

As one focus in this BRS event, and relating to the Confluences, we will take a specific look at scale-linking design and governance between the bioregional and the community scale. The place-specificity in bioregioning always comes back to governance on the community scale, as soon as land use decisions have to be taken. The community scale is most complex, thus easily neglected, and (non) interventions with a bioregional weaving aim need to include this complexity more in the dialogue and in design strategies. This BRS enriches the discourse with practical embodiment of complexity by taking bioregional strategies to place-specific decisions at the community scale, drawing from 10 years of practical, science-guided design experience of the MVI in the local communities.

 

---

Day-by-day BRS rhythm:

8 September
Arrival & Ascent: Embodying the watershed

Evening: arrival at the MonViso Institute campus in Ostana, where the group is welcomed into the rhythms of alpine altitude. A slow evening invites grounding, orientation, and informal gathering—opening a shared field for the days to come. In dry weather: an open bonfire.

 

9 September
Immersion & Exchange: Listening to the land and the larger system

Morning: after a hearty breakfast, we attune to the place through a hike of the Ostana village, including a brief look at the MVI’s living systems lab campus. This guided immersion reveals the nestedness of MVI within the Ostana village and the High Po River valley, where ecological, socio-cultural, technical, and economic flows intersect.

Afternoon:

In sync with the R3.0 global conference, we weave in selected online listenings—hosted in both the local Polifunctional building indoor space and MVI’s outdoor amphitheatre (weather permitting). 

At 1 o'clock (13h) will be our first connection with the conference, tuning into the keynote opening speech delivered by Joe Brewer on: How Bioregionalism Brings Coherence to Regeneration of the Earth, directly after 2 o'clock, we will continue the online weaving with the first session on: Bioregional Earth: Braiding Bioregions Globally Across 3 Horizons.

These sessions invite us to bridge place-based practice with global-scale frameworks for redesign and regeneration. A walk-and-talk hike through the forests and alpine pastures, enjoying a coffee or tea break in one of the local cafes, extends this dialogue into the landscape.

Evening: shared hands-on engagement in stewardship of the campus reinforces the regenerative ethic. The day concludes with a dinner at the agritourismo.

 

10 September

Morning: we deepen our systemic orientation with continued engagement in R3.0 sessions, aligned with the living narratives of this specific mountain bioregion. We further attune to the place through a detailed campus tour of MVI’s living systems lab, offered by the founder.

We further attune to the place through a detailed campus tour of MVI’s living systems lab, offered by the founder.

Afternoon: the Confluence’s late afternoon 5 o’clock session on Bioregional Resourcing – Regenerating & Sustaining Diverse Resource Flows takes local form as we invite neighbours, artisans, farmers, and place-based actors into a shared dialogue. Stories of water, work, mobility, culture, resilience, and belonging converge in the informal but essential work of place-based weaving, with a special attention to the community scale of design and governance.

Evening: around the fire, the bioregion speaks through many voices. This is not a presentation, but a weaving of presences—an embodied commons that invites every participant to step into stewardship.

 

11 September
Reflection & Departure: Integrating Insights into Movement

Morning: together, we host a virtual Confluence sharing session, transmitting the lived learning and resonances from the High Po Delta upstream and downstream into the R3.0 community. Collective sensemaking is visualized and synthesized. Afterwards, we end our time together and travel back.

 

 

---

Accommodation & Food

Option 1: The Foresteria hostel in Ostana, 10 minutes walking distance, with spacious, semi-private bunk beds and two bathrooms for two sleeping rooms (8 people max per room). It has a kitchen where you can cook. 

Option 2: A single or double room in the Agriturismo or Rifugio Galaberna.

 

---

Travel

The MVI campus can be reached by train/bus to Torino and then by train to either Savigliano (preferred) or Pinerolo, followed by either a public bus or a shared taxi ride of one hour uphill into the Commune di Ostana. The closest airports are Torino and Milano. If you come by car, there is some parking space in the village. Car sharing or public transport are encouraged to keep the village free from traffic. Overall, we encourage you to arrive by public transport, if slow traveling is feasible for you as a means of respect for the environment.

 

---

Participation fee & application

Please contact us by email apply@monviso-institute.org until 1 September 2025 for further information. The participation fee of 90€ covers the local organization, access to the online conference, room rental, and one social community evening. Accommodation, lunch, and dinners are at individual costs.