Decentering Design

About

Decentering Design is a para-institutional expertise center within KASK & Conservatory, exploring more-than-human approaches to design through artistic research, critical practice and experimentation. We question dominant worldviews and offer insights, perspectives, and strategies for designing more equitable ways of living together.

Our first publication, Decentering Design — Practice in a More-than-Human World, documents the research, conversations, projects, and methodological approaches developed during the founding phases of the research center.


People
 Bert De Roo — Coordinator
bert.deroo@hogent.be

Giliam Ganzevles — (Artistic) Researcher, (Digital) Designer
giliam.ganzevles@hogent.be

Jo Boonen — Researcher, Landscape Architect
jo.boonen@hogent.be

Glenn Deliège — Researcher, Nature Philosopher

Stefanie Delarue — Researcher, Biologist

Pippa De Kinder — Researcher, Biologist, Landscape Architect

Mirte van Aalst — Researcher, Designer
2020-2023


ResearchIntermediate Zones

2024-2028
Artistic Research
KASK & Conservatory HOGENT Howest
Intermediate Zones is an artistic research project rooted in Decentering Design. Approaching the Bijloke campus as a multispecies assemblage, the project understands the environment we live in as a communal effort of interacting human and other-than-human actors whose entangled activities form the currents that push the continuous unfolding of the world forward - the worlding of the world is always a becoming-with. To acknowledge this reality, we need to problematise our anthropocentric modes of relating while recognizing that we can never fully step outside of our own embodied and technologically mediated ways of engagement. To make this tension productive we artistically appropriate the concept of Umwelt to develop the notion of ‘intermediate zones’: staged, unstable and situated moments of proximity in which other-than-human realities condition the encounter and temporarily decenter the ‘human’ in our own embodied experience. To stage and inhabit these intermediate zones, we develop ritualised engagements and installations as sites of temporally bound embodied encounters, while critically interrogating the role of technological mediation in conditioning them. The project will result in these engagements and installations alongside the residues, traces and practices that emerge from them, offering only partial accounts of what happened.

R2D2 - Relational Realities, Decentering Design

2025-2028
PWO-Funded Research
KASK & Conservatory HOGENT Howest
R2D2 continues the work of Decentering Design, this time focusing on landscape architecture. Working on an urban fringe site through a living lab methodology and in collaborating with six architectural offices, we’ll take a closer look at how design and design processes shape the more-than-human landscape. Together, we’ll question the role of the designer, rethink the tools we use, and explore how stories, games, and rituals can bring more-than-human realities to the center of the design process.    
FUTUR-US: Designing Sustainable Ecosystems: non-human centric toolkit for sustainable development

2020-2023
PWO-Funded Research
HOWEST University of Applied Sciences, 
Department Digital Design & Development (DEVINE)

As part of the inter-institutional research initiative developed together with A New Perspective on Rural Estates, this project developed a framework to decenter the human within design processes and situates design within the socio-ecological community of its surroundings. 

Rather than treating other-than-humans as passive background, the work questions our dualistic worldview and acknowledges reciprocal relations and shared agency. Through iterative real-world testing, the framework materialised in workshops for spatial, artistic, and design practices, as well as an educational program within the School of Arts. The project resulted among others in the publication ‘Decentering Design – Practice in a More-than-Human World.
A New Perspective on Rural Estates

2020-2025
PWO-Funded Research
KASK & Conservatory HOGENT Howest

As part of the inter-institutional research initiative developed together with FUTUR-US, This project developed a framework to decenter the human within design processes and situates design within the socio-ecological community of its surroundings. 

Rather than treating other-than-humans as passive background, the work questions our dualistic worldview and acknowledges reciprocal relations and shared agency. Through iterative real-world testing, the framework materialised in workshops for spatial, artistic, and design practices, as well as an educational program within the School of Arts. The project resulted among others in the publication ‘Decentering Design – Practice in a More-than-Human World.

EducationUX for More-than-human Perspectives

2025-2026 - Expert Elective
2024-2025 - Expert Elective
HOWEST University of Applied Sciences,  Led by Kim Diependael

This expert elective at the Department of Digital Design & Development (DEVINE) deliberately shifts the frame from Human-Centered Design, starting instead with other-than-human stakeholders to propose digital interventions that place non-human interests at the center of the design process.
Workshop Ecology

2025-2026
On-site workshop
The Animal Question

Ongoing - Master Seminar
Nomadic School of Arts
KASK & Conservatory HOGENT Howest

In The Animal that Therefore I Am Derrida finds himself naked in front of his cat. First, he feels embarrassment. However, almost immediately the embarrassment gives way to embarrassment about his embarrassment. Surely, his cat is not really looking at him, so why feel embarrassed about his own nakedness? Can we actually ‘be caught’ in the gaze of an animal, as we can be caught in the gaze of another human? Do animals have a point of view and if so, what is it like and do we need to take it into account? What, if anything, distinguishes us from other animals – the fact that only we can be naked, perhaps? –, and what does that mean for our relationship with other animals? Embassy for the More-than-Human

2022-2023 - Minor
Nomadic School of Arts
KASK & Conservatory HOGENT Howest

In the academic year 2022-2023, the minor ‘KASK&Conservatorium als een meer-dan-menselijke gemeenschap’ will establish the Embassy for the More-than-Human on the Arsenaalsite, Ghent. We aim to represent and defend the more-than-human community during the temporary development of this ‘assumed derelict’ marshalling yard. Through on-site presence and interventions, the Embassy will realize awareness of and sensitivity towards the current and future more-than-human inhabitants.  
Papers / Publications / ArticlesDe wolf weet nog niet dat de mens meer van pony's dan van schapen houdt
Article
Deliège G., (2025, August 28). De wolf weet nog niet dat de mens meer van pony's dan van schapen houdt. De Standaard. https://www.archined.nl/2025/08/landschapsliefde/

[link]
Landschapsliefde
Article
Boonen, J., & De Roo, B. (2025, August 26). Landschapsliefde. Archined. https://www.archined.nl/2025/08/landschapsliefde/

[link]
Decentering Design –
Practice in a More-than-Human World
Publication
Ganzevles, G., & De Roo, B. (Eds.). (2025, March). Decentering Design – Practice in a More-than-Human World. Art Paper Editions. ISBN 978-9464775853

[link]
Towards Intermediate Zones: Artefacts of the Umwelt Design Approach
Paper
De Roo, Bert & Ganzevles, Giliam. (2024). Towards Intermediate Zones: Artefacts of the Umwelt Design Approach. 10.63442/LLJN6584. 

[link]
Een stem voor plant en dier op de Arsenaalsite
Article
De Roo, B. & Deliège, G. (2023, September 14). Een stem voor plant en dier op de Arsenaalsite. Onrust Magazine.

[link]
The Umwelt-sketch as More-than-human Design Methodology: Decentering the design process from human-centered towards more-than-human-centered
Paper
De Roo, Bert & Ganzevles, Giliam. (2023). The Umwelt-sketch as More-than-human Design Methodology: Decentering the design process from human-centered towards more-than-human-centered. 203-206. 10.1145/3563703.3596628. 

[link]
Workshops / Talks / Exhibitions[Intermediate Zones C2-E7]
Exhibition - 18-20 April 2026
Research Days 2026
Play, KASK & Conservatorium, Bijloke, Ghent, BE.

[link] Memories Beyond the Human
Lecture Performance - 04 December 2025
Événement d’inspiration Creativ’up Explorer la mémoire à travers des connexions inattendues, Le Fresnoy, Tourcoing, FR.

[link]
Decentering Design: Practice in a More-than-Human World
Lecture - 02 October 2025
Symposium Intelligence Beyond Human, FH Vorarlberg, Dornbirn, AU.

[link]
Strategies for Decentering Design
Lecture - 26 September 2025
Archi-Tree-Tecture, Lithuanian Pavillion, Venice Biennale, Venice, IT.

[link]
Reflective Practice for More-than-Human Perspectives in Design
Workshop - 26 September 2025
Archi-Tree-Tecture, Lithuanian Pavillion, Venice Biennale, Venice, IT.

[link]
Meertalig Landschap
Workshop - 07 July 2025
Toekomstatelier: Meer-dan-menselijke perspectieven in landschapsarchitectuur, Blikveld VZW, Industriemuseum Gent, Ghent, BE. [link]
Disobedient Bodies, Thinking and Acting Beyond AnthropocentrismCollective Book Launch - 27 May 2025
Kunsthal Gent, Ghent, BE.

[link]
Decentering Design PerspectivesWorkshop - 20 May 2025
Postgraduate Space & Service Design, Thomas More, Mechelen, BE.


Decentering Design: Practice in a More-than-Human WorldLecture - 27 February 2025
UX Ghent - Planet Centric Design, KASK & Conservatory, Ghent, BE.

[link]Decentering Design: Practice in a More-than-Human WorldLecture - 16 December 2024
UHasselt - Faculty Architecture and Art, Hasselt, BE.

[link]
Decentering Design - Practice in a More-than-Human WorldPresentation - 04 October 2024
These Sites are (Not) Vacant! Rubber Boots Methods for Researching the Living City, Seminar Research Methods for the Living City,  Faculty of Architecture, KU Leuven, Evere, Brussels, BE.

[link]
Decentering Design Perspectives Through the UmweltWorkshop - 15-17 May 2024
P/References of Design, Cumulus Conference, MOME, Budapest, HU.

[link]
Towards Intermediate Zones: Artefacts of the Umwelt Design ApproachPaper Presentation - 15-17 May 2024
P/References of Design, Cumulus Conference, MOME, Budapest, HU.

[link]
Decentering DesignLecture - 23 November 2023
Design Dialogues, Design × More-than-Human, Design Museum Gent, Ghent, BE.

[link]
The Umwelt-sketch as More-than-human Design Methodology: Decentering the design process from human-centered towards more-than-human-centeredPaper Presentation - 10-14 July 2023
ACM DIS23: Rebuilding & Resilience, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.

[link]
Lessons from the Arsenaalsite - Reflecting on the Minor Programme Embassy : More-than-HumanPresentation - 25 April 2023
TUSSENTIJD ALS LABO: Wat de Arsenaalsite kan leren over natuurinclusieve gebiedsontwikkeling, KASK & Conservatory, Ghent, BE.

[link]
AwardsGold Award 
Publication Decentering Design Practice in a More-than-human World Henry van de Velde Awards
Category Design Research

MentionsEen nieuw perspectief in design: de mens niet langer centraal  Blog Howest University of Applied Sciences

[link]






Last Updated 03.11.25