‘Reimagining Paradise’ Transformative Agency

As a transition design consultancy, LIOS Labs collaborates with a decentralised technology start-up ThreeFold to explore the intersections of ecology, culture, and technology, to catalyse tangible impacts across the island of Zanzibar. Our initiative aims to transform an established tourist resort in Mbweni into a glocal innovation hub.

Beginning with comprehensive landscape data collection and analysis, we facilitate the establishment of sustainable supply chains, innovative food production systems, and immersive learning experiences. Alongside our local partners, we explore and practice permaculture, learn and apply principles from marine and terrestrial ecology and botany.

Within this framework, LIOS Labs agents Ignacy Hryniewicz and Jo Vávra initiate the "Reimagining Paradise" ecology series, posing a question—What if a paradise is not a destination, but a constant state of becoming? —a public ecology lab that invites local and international experts to share insights into the island's ecosystems and craft strategies for land and ocean rejuvenation.

Through our engagement in Zanzibar we actively seek to uncover and amplify local, ancestral, and emerging practices and narratives that challenge colonialist, heteropatriarchal, and racist structures inherent in late-stage capitalism. The program marks the beginning of an enduring collaboration with Mbweni Ruins and Gardens Community and Dunia Yetu’s Threefold Hub, as we collectively work on establishing a sustainable and self-sovereign paradigm in Zanzibar.