Description
An eight-month, part-time Regenerative Design Lab programme for people across the built environment who want to put regenerative thinking into practice.
Cohort 9 marks the beginning of a new chapter for the Lab: our first full programme at the Beeches, situated in the Hope Valley. Alongside our established programme at Hazel Hill Wood, this new location for the Lab makes this programme easier to reach from the Midlands and North of England as well as from London.
New to the lab? Find out more about the Regenerative Design Lab.
Applications for the Regenerative Design Lab open in November. To register your interest drop us an email.
At a glance
- Dates: March–October 2027
- Format: Part-time — three residential gatherings and five online workshops
- Location: Online and the Beeches, Hope Valley
- Cohort: Approx 20 participants
- Time commitment: Around one hour a week between sessions, ideally integrated into your existing work
- Fees: £3000/£2000/£1000 + VAT, depending on how your place is funded
A new place of the Lab
RDL Beeches is an opportunity to discover what happens when the Regenerative Design Lab takes root somewhere new.
The Beeches sits in the Hope Valley, in a landscape shaped by both its natural and industrial histories and closely connected to the towns and cities around it.
Those relationships — between people and place, industry and ecology, past and future — give us rich territory for exploring regenerative practice.
Cohort 9 will be the first full RDL cohort to make this place its home. As well as pursuing your own enquiry, you’ll be part of discovering how the Lab responds to this particular landscape and what a continuing RDL community at the Beeches might become.
About the facilitators
Oliver Broadbent is founder of the Regenerative Design Lab, and author of the Pattern Book for Regenerative Design and the Regenerative Structural Engineer. Oliver trains engineers (and other humans) in regenerative thinking. He is looking forward to be the guest in a new landscape for facilitating the RDL.
Stella McKenna is a facilitator and systems change practitioner interested in how people, communities and places shape one another. She lives in Bamford in the Peak District, where she’s closely connected to The Beeches where RDL North will be hosted. She is looking forward to welcoming people into this landscape and exploring what it has to teach us.
The journey
RDL Beeches combines three residential gatherings with four online workshops over eight months.
The programme begins with more input and facilitated exploration: regenerative thinking, systems practice and the patterns and tools we use in the Lab.
As the journey develops, the emphasis increasingly shifts towards participants’ own enquiries, experiments and peer support.
Beyond the Lab, our aim is to develop your capacity to continue experimenting, learning and making change long after the programme has finished.
Session Dates – subject to change
- Wed 17th Mar 10h00 to 12h00 | Online kick Off | Via Zoom
- Tue 13th Apr 12h00 to Wed 14th Apr 13h00 | Spring Residential | The Beeches
- Tue 11th May 09h30 to 12h30 | First Online Session | Via Zoom
- Wed 9th June 09h30 to 12h30 | Second Online Session | Via Zoom
- TBC Mon 5th July 12h00 to Wed 7th July 13h00 Summer Residential | The Beeches
- Wed 8th Sept 09h30 to 12h30 | Third Online Session | Via Zoom
- Tue 28th Sept 09h30 to 12h30 | Fourth Online Session | Via Zoom
- Wed 13th Oct 12h00 to Thu 14th Oct 13h00 | Autumn Residential | The Beeches
Fees
- £3000+ VAT – organisation rate
- £2000 + VAT – purpose rate (public sector, charity, small organisations)
- £1000 + VAT – self-funded / micro-organisation rat
Each cohort also includes up to two equity places at £600 + VAT. These are designed for applicants who would not otherwise be able to attend, due to financial barriers or underrepresented perspectives.
Equity places are an intentional part of how we design the Lab. They exist to help ensure financial barriers don’t prevent diverse perspectives being present in the cohort.
Many participants are supported by their employer through professional development, leadership, sustainability or innovation budgets. Need some help getting your organisation on board? We can help – get in touch.
Applying for RDL Beeches Cohort 9
Applications for the Regenerative Design Lab open in November. To register your interest drop us an email.
We are looking for people with the curiosity and commitment to explore regenerative practice deeply, and the capacity to take their learning into projects, organisations, communities and wider networks.
We don’t select on seniority. We also consider the balance of the cohort as a whole, bringing together different disciplines, levels of experience, perspectives and areas of enquiry.
Applications will open in November and will be reviewed and shortlisted on a rolling basis from early December, so we encourage you to apply early.
If shortlisted, join a short informal interview with one of the facilitators in mid January to learn more about you, your work, and your hopes for the Lab and to answer any questions you may have.
Final application deadline: 8 January 2027
Shortlisting: from early December, with final shortlisting around 12 January
Interviews: week commencing 25 January
Places confirmed: early February
RDL Beeches or RDL Hazel?
In 2027 we’re running two parallel RDL cohorts: RDL Beeches and RDL Hazel.
Apply to your preferred cohort. On the application form, we’ll also ask whether you would be happy to be considered for the other cohort.
Because we carefully balance each group and each cohort is limited to 20 people, there may be occasions when we can’t offer a place at your first-choice location but can offer one in the other cohort.
Selection criteria
We aim to bring together a cohort that is ambitious, thoughtful and diverse — in interests, in lived experience and practice. When reviewing the applications we will consider the following criteria:
Engagement with regenerative design and adjacent fields
This is not a beginner course. You don’t need to have a detailed understanding of regenerative design, but we are looking for applicants who are already engaging with the ideas—whether through circular economy, systems thinking, sustainability, nature-based solutions, or other adjacent fields.
We want to work with people who are ready to go deeper and apply these ideas in real contexts.
Potential for impact and influence
This Lab is designed for leaders and future leaders — people with the intent and ambition to bring others with them. We’re looking for participants who are positioned to stimulate change, whether in their teams, organisations, networks or communities. That doesn’t always mean formal authority — it could mean influence through credibility, storytelling, practice or convening power.
We’ll ask about your leadership experience and the ways you might be able to share your learning with others.
Balance across the cohort
We design each cohort to bring together a rich mix of sectors, roles, and types of professional experience—from engineering and architecture to policymaking, consultancy, finance, and grassroots practice. We also pay attention to lived experience and underrepresented identities.
Together these factors help us build a well-balanced cohort, where different experiences, needs and strengths can shape the conversation, deepen understanding and make space for mutual thriving.
Equity & accessibility
We seek to create safe and brave spaces for participants from diverse backgrounds and lived experience. We are committed to embedding equity, inclusion, and anti-oppression at the heart of our programmes.
If you have additional support or access needs, please let us know in the application form. We are happy to arrange a call to discuss how we can support your learning.
Participant agreement
We ask all participants to sign up to our participant agreement.
