Learning Labs for Impact Communities

Learning & Education Design

Embedded Learning 

We believe true learning takes place in the complex context of place and societal relationships.

Regenerative Education 

Both a place of inquiry and development of Earth attuned eduction. The Learning Lab develops and teaches transdisciplinary, experiential, and entrepreneurial programs for the regeneration of place, society, and self. Some programs are offered at the universities we partner with.

Designing & Facilitating Transformative Learning Spaces 

We use collaborative, creative, and phenomenological methodologies to explore and design transformational learning environments. They integrate practice, theory, and capacity building for educators, students, practitioners and partners.

Social Innovation

Labs for change

We develop labs as vehicle for strategic organisational learning and innovation, or as facilitated environment for multi stakeholder social change initiatives. Social innovation is first and foremost a learning process. Labs provide the flexible structure and facilitation in which organisations, talent, and leadership learn and develop new capabilities to explore and realise impact. They produce social, economic, human, or intellectual capital.

Living Systems Labs

Living Systems Labs create the conditions for non linear development, often accompanied by the introduction of technological, social, and economic interventions. They provide the possibility for participatory design and a collective learning proces. We develop Labs in collaboration with cities and other governments, foundations, organised citizens, companies, and universities.

Why Labs?

Insight

Labs give insight into the bigger picture its issues, build better relationships and capacity for collective action, and map the root causes that lie at their core. They also allow different kinds of knowledge to be used and produced.

Hands-On Learning

Labs provide a facilitated learning space to develop agency, and embody change so that 1) ideas do not remain ideas, but are grounded in real world feedback/feedforward, 2) real world situations can enable deep learning.

Facilitate change

Labs facilitate and host co-ownership and a transformative proces. They create a playing field that is safe, collaborative, and experimental.

Keynotes & Lectures

The Learning City & Living Landscapes

City Making

Citizens, governments, and companies are finding new ways to develop cities and landscapes for sustainable futures together. We develop strategies and learning labs to enhance the collective ability to learn for the regeneration of place, city and landscape.

School Design

School Design Labs facilitate the co-development of schools or programs with a regenerative role in their community. Starting from people and place, developing capacity in the community of partners.

What is new?

Leonardo Award for Learning

Founder of the Learning Lab, Thieu Besselink, receives European Leonardo Award for Corporate Learning, placing a particular emphasis on work at the intersection between business, art, communities and societal innovation in learning and knowing in today´s economy.

The jury speaks of:

“far-reaching pioneering work as an innovator, philosopher and adviser, who combines academic fundamental research with practical implementation in a rather diverse context. The variety of aspects you have focused your important work on are truly holistic in the spirit of Leonardo.”