starter kit for regenerative practices
Benjamin Onno Dikmans
Stella Dikmans
Julio Rebora
rewild farming is a collective of practioners in the field of (eco)system regeneration; established through my graduation project, which is a 1:1 prototype of our starter kit. we started a co-creative space for regenerative practices with its placing on a squatted piece of industrial area. in collaboration with co-founder Bram de Vos, we repurposed a shipping container into a workspace for gardening which has become a third space and attracted creative practitioners that now form our collective. we consist loosely of about 10-20 active people with a core of 5 stewarding members. we are currently forming our organizational structures to kickstart a broader, international outreach at this year’s DDW, while maintaining our horizontal, open and, participatory values.
with backgrounds in permaculture, food transition, gastronomy, sociology, carpentry, software development and social design our team has a diverse and sturdy stance to grow into our aim of becoming a platform for small-scale, land-based and community-driven ecosystem restoration. we hope to bridge the gap between conceptual ecological awareness and practical implementation, contributing to the diversification of the agricultural sector with co-creative means.
we have exhibited and ideated our current concept through exhibitions and workshops at Zonnegoed Boerderij, DDW 2024, Aeres Hoogeschoolen (MA Food System Design), Design Museum Den Bosch and Nieuw Zwanenburg. furthermore, we have received small sponsoring in form of materials and services from various businesses around eindhoven to create the prototype. since graduating from DAE in January 2025, we have co-hosted a 2-month residency at Sectie-C, have been invited to a residency (nov 2025) in north macedonia as part of the Next Gen Design Awards, are nominated for the Social Design Talent Award (eindhoven) and, have started multiple collaborations (Stadsmakers EHV, Soontiens Tuincentrum, Smart Citizen Kit, TU/e) for further development.
escalating environmental changes are reshaping the social and normative landscapes of young people's lives around the world. yet, paradoxically, we are observing a growing disengagement from the ecosystems that sustain us. this disengagement is leading to an increasing incomprehension of our food systems and more-than-human worlds. we envision (ecosystem) regeneration as a holistic practice integrating conceptual engagement through critical inquiry into food systems and hands-on experimentation with seeds, harvests, and crop cultivation.
our work focuses on curating spatial experiences that empower young people to reclaim their agency in their relationship with their environment. at our pilot site, an urban industrial area, we developed a "starter kit for regenerative practices". our approach is rooted in permaculture, applied not just to agricultural practices but also to forms of social organization.
we invite active participation in a co-creative space. farming, cooking, fermenting and claying go hand in hand with reading, debating, and organizing time and space horizontally. we empower individuals to take an active role in food production and nurture social cohesion by facilitating meaningful interactions among young people and their diverse surroundings.
we aim to grow out of our local networks, increasing the impact of our regenerative practices by sharing, adapting and co-developing them through the integration into LINA's network. we are seeking a practical collaboration to test and adapt our starter kit in another european context and location while broadening our conceptual framework to incorporate different views on "regeneration" and reintegration into natural life cycles. our goal is to cultivate a spatial culture that is aware of, and actively engaged with, a regenerative future, and to facilitate a growing network of like-minded projects, places, and people.