Bioregional Sensing
Designing Resilient Regenerative Futures
Building Bridges to Resilient Futures
25-30 April 2025, Venice Lagoon, Italy
This Bioregional Sensing event, a Designing Resilient Regenerative Systems (DRRS) initiative organized by the MonViso Institute in partnership with Camping Ca’Savio, explores the interplay between natural ecosystems and human systems in fostering resilience, for the broader Venice Lagoon and its hydro-geographical relation with up- and downstream flows with the neighbouring Alps.
This two-part event immerses participants in a transformative experience designed to inspire, educate, co-design and mobilize for designing toward regenerative futures.
Part 1
Systemic Cycles
The event begins with a Systemic Cycles tour, a guided multi-day bicycle trip following the three major Alpine rivers of this bioregion — Brenta, Sile, and Piave. These rivers, once vital suppliers of fresh water, nutrients, and sediments to the Venice Lagoon, are central to understanding the lagoon’s ecological and socio-economic dynamics. Participants will cycle downstream from the Alps to Camping Ca’Savio on Venice’s offshore coast, engaging in “insight-seeing” rather than mainstream sightseeing, contributing to long-term bioregional mapping and sensing.
The SC tour combines regional exploration with systemic learning, allowing participants to:
— understand more about the complex ecosystem of the Venice Lagoon and the challenges it faces in achieving resilience and regeneration,
— experience a moving social adventure that shifts the perspective from passive observation to active engagement,
— explore bio-regional supply chain systems and their potential for circularity and regeneration by mapping flows, and getting in direct contact with people we meet.
The Systemic Cycles tour blends active learning with a practical understanding of systemic design, offering an innovative approach to fostering ecological awareness and sustainable tourism. This SC tour counts as well as a module of the SC guide training program.
Part 2
Unconference: Building Bridges to Resilient Futures
The event’s second half takes place at Camping Ca’Savio, in and around the innovative Experience Lab. This physical space is a hub for bioregional learning, exchange, and collaboration, setting the stage for two days of dynamic interaction with physical hands-on experiences and a lagoon kayak tour.
The Experience Lab is a creative meeting space with a new multimedia VR exhibition and a physical, dialogic space for multi-sensual interaction.
Under the theme Building Bridges to Resilience Futures, the unconference invites participants to actively exchange ideas and co-create pathways for developing resilient regenerative regional futures. The character of the unconference focuses on the dialogic and direct project-specific co-creative exchange, rather than classic presentation formats.
Program
29 April
Breathing in
08:00-09:00
Social breakfast
Place: Cafe Square, Camping Ca’Savio
9:00-09:45
Moving entry with a welcome section: walk the campsite stepping stones
Meet the campsite owners, the Vianello family, and the organizing MVI
Meeting point: ExpoLab, Camping Ca’Savio
10:00-13:00
Foundational briefing with short presentations and visual dialogue
Intro and recap of bioregioning: Tobias Luthe, MVI Founding Director
The Systemic Cycles tour: recap by Folef Hooft Grafland, Camping Ca’Savio Local Host, MVI Design Associate and Martin Schütz, Systemic Cycles Co-founder
Ecological specifics of the Venice Lagoon: Sebastian Raimondo, Co-founder of Semplicemente Complesso
Visual dialogue: altogether
Moderated by: Michael Grimm, MVI Design Associate
Place: ExpoLab, Camping Ca’Savio
13:00-14:00
Bioregional lunch with a 5-minute reflective practice
Place: Camping Ca’Savio restaurant
Camping Ca’Savio's locally grown pasta
14:15-15:30
Land restoration: walk the agricultural fields
Guided by: Maurizio Vianello, Founder of Camping Ca’ Savio
and Folef Hooft Graafland
Fluid walking discussion: economic models around carbon onsetting (Tobias Luthe)
Meeting point: Expo Lab, Camping Ca’Savio
15:00-17:00 Break
17:00-21:00
Cycle to the lagoon and start the kayak tour
Ecologically guided lagoon kayak tour with a sunset pizza dinner on an island
Meeting point: ExpoLab, Camping Ca’Savio
21:00
Return to Camping Ca’Savio by bike with a day-closing social drink
30 April
Immersing
06:30-07:30
Sunrise at the Adriatic Sea beach
Sandscape mapping: participatory land art lab
Guided by: Sylwia Orczykowska, MVI Design Associate, Founder of Art Now
Place: Camping Ca’Savio beach
08:00-08:45
Breakfast
Place: Plaza Square
9:00-10:00
Making accessible
Touring the Expolab and experiencing the Virtual Reality installation (guided by Folef Hooft Graafland)
10:00-12:00
Regional actors’ input
Short presentations accompanied by joint visual dialogue
- Business for good: Rehub
- Local economies: The Tidal Garden
- Carbon onsetting: Landscape Finance Lab
- Bioregional data types: Trueworld and others (Tobias Luthe)
- Governance (local, politics,...): Filippo Di Lenardo, Consultant & Founder at Open Research & Impact Lab, DRRS Alumni
Moderated by: Michael Grimm
Place: ExpoLab, Camping Ca’Savio
13:00-14:00
Bioregional lunch - regional specialities with a 5-minute reflective practice
Place: Camping Ca'Savio restaurant
14:00-15:30 Break
15:30-17:00
Digging deep
Smaller group workshops supported by Gigamapping:
- Tourism/campsite’s role in the future: guests and off-season activities (Maurizio Vianello, Folef Hooft Graafland)
- Bioregional cross-scale mapping as of living atlas co-development (Sylwia Orczykowska)
- Participation and learning through VR (Recon company)
- Community integration: participative social actor/network mapping (Michael Grimm)
- Economic models around carbon onsetting and bioregional diversification (Tobias Luthe)
17:30-18:30
Fresh air synthesis
Outside walk to the beach: Concluding discussion in a “wobbly” setting
Guided by: Folef Hooft Graafland and Tobias Luthe
Summary: What have we experienced, what have we learnt? What questions were solved, what new ones came up?
The meta-narrative: why bioregional sensing?
The sharing: how to communicate and integrate bioregioning? How to build upon systems sensing and systems mapping? What do we take home, what do we leave with this bioregional sprout?
19:00-21:00
Bioregional dinner
Wrap-up of the Unconference
A farewell note by the Vianello family
Place: Camping Ca’Savio restaurant
1 May
Leaving a trace
08:00-08:45
Social breakfast and goodbye
Place: Plaza Square, Camping Ca’Savio
09:00
Finish of the Unconference and the Bioregional Sensing event
Entry fee
There are 3 variants of participation in the Bioregional Sensing event.
Variant 1: only Systemic Cycles, 25-28 April 2025
Variant 2: only Unconference, 29-30 April 2025
Variant 3: entire event 25-30 April 2025
Depending on your status, please see the fees of variants 1 and 2:
Variant 1
Systemic Cycle, 25-28 April:
- Regular participant: 300 EUR
- Systemic Cycle Guide practice days: 240 EUR
- Students, DRRS Alumni: 180 EUR
The cost of accommodation and food is not included. Each participant covers it individually.
Food: approx. 35 EUR / day
Accommodation: approx. 40 EUR / night
Participants are encouraged to bring their own bikes. If needed, bike rentals are available upon request. For assistance, please contact Camping Ca’Savio Local Host, Folef Hooft Graafland at folef@monviso-institute.org.
Variant 2
Unconference Building Bridges to Resilient Futures, 29-30 April:
- Regular participant: 250 EUR
- Systemic Cycle Guide practice days: 200 EUR
- Local residents: 50 EUR
- Students, DRRS Alumni: 170 EUR
The cost of accommodation and food is not included. Each participant covers it individually.
Food: approx. 30 EUR / day
Three accommodation options at Camping Ca’Savio:
Lodge Libra
Located at the start of the pinewood near the supermarket and both swimming pools. Perfectly positioned for a morning coffee at the sun-filled square and within 2 minutes walk of the beach.
Price: 297 EUR / 3 nights
Lido Mobile Home
Located a few steps away from a pedestrian path, ideal to reach the swimming pool together with kids, to go shopping at the supermarket, or to reach the bar to taste a good Italian coffee.
Price: 183 EUR / 3 nights
Own tent
Price: 56 EUR / 3 nights
Variant 3
Variant 3 fee is simply the sum of variant 1 and 2 fees.
For example, if you are a regular participant and you attend the entire event, your total cost is:
300 EUR (Systemic Cycles) + 250 EUR (Unconference) = 550 EUR (+ accommodation and food costs).
Partners
