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Aerial view of Song Saa Private Island in Cambodia's Koh Rong Archipelago

Living Systems Residency · Volume 1

An invitation to five practitioners

Volume 1 of the RT Living Systems Residency takes place at Song Saa Private Island from 28 October to 8 November 2026. We are inviting practitioners across five disciplines to apply — we will assess the strongest applications from each field and select the cohort from there. This page is for you to decide whether to apply.

Read the invitation ↓

Where

Song Saa

When

28 Oct — 8 Nov

Cohort

Five

What this residency is

A working residency. Your practice is the curriculum.

The Living Systems Residency brings five practitioners across complementary disciplines into residence at a single property for twelve days. Volume 1 happens at Song Saa Private Island in Cambodia, the founding property of the residency.

You will be in residence from 28 October through 8 November 2026 — twelve days at Song Saa, fully immersed in your practice alongside four other practitioners across the verticals. For the first ten days, the residency is yours and the four other practitioners' — to work, to collaborate, to develop what each of you is making. From 7 November, a curated cohort of ten Regenerative Travel members joins the residency for the closing weekend. They are not your audience. They are participants alongside you in what unfolds.

The residency closes on the evening of 8 November with the Living Systems Dinner — a single shared meal designed by the chef in residence, sourced from the island, and shaped by contributions from each of the five practitioners. The dinner is open to twenty-five additional guests beyond the cohort and is filmed in full.

This is not a retreat with instructors. It is a working residency. Your practice is the curriculum.

A single shell resting on cream linen, still-life detail

The calendar

Twelve days, in three movements.

28 October – 6 November

Practitioners in residence

Ten days of independent and collaborative work between the five practitioners. The rhythm of the place settles. The work begins. Each practitioner develops what they will share with the cohort, in dialogue with the four others.

7 – 8 November

Members in residence

Ten founding cohort members arrive on the morning of 7 November and stay through the morning of 9 November. Two days of working alongside the practitioners — kitchen sessions, morning practices, walks with the regenerative farmer, conversations with the storyteller, time with the artist.

8 November

The Living Systems Dinner

The closing night. A single shared meal designed by the chef in residence, with contributions from each practitioner. The cohort, the practitioners, and twenty-five additional guests. The dinner is filmed in full as the closing artifact of Volume 1.

9 November

Departure

Members depart in the morning. Practitioners can stay through the day to complete deliverables before departing on the morning of 10 November if needed.

Who we are inviting

Five disciplines. Open to a range of practitioners in each.

Volume 1 brings together practitioners across five complementary disciplines. The disciplines below describe the kinds of practice we are gathering — not a single job spec. Within each field, a range of backgrounds and approaches can apply, and we will assess the strongest applications on their own terms before selecting the final cohort of five.

If your work sits close to one of these fields — or across two of them — apply. We would rather read your application than guess whether you fit.

The Chef

Chefs working at the edge of regenerative cuisine. Sourcing from within an ecosystem, cooking with seasonal and indigenous rhythms, and rethinking what fine food can mean when extraction is removed from the table. Backgrounds across indigenous Southeast Asian, foraging-led, fermentation-led, or land-to-table practice are all welcome.

II.

The Wellness Practitioner

Practitioners whose work sits at the intersection of body, breath, and land. Movement, breathwork, yoga, somatic practice, and related traditions all apply. The role includes morning practices during the member weekend, one masterclass, and the closing ceremony on the final night.

III.

The Regenerative Farmer

Practitioners working in regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, food sovereignty, or soil science. You will be in residence with the Song Saa farm team across the full twelve days, contributing working knowledge and learning from the property's existing systems. Indigenous food knowledge holders and traditional agricultural practitioners are particularly welcome.

IV.

The Storyteller

Photographers and/or videographers whose practice can hold the rhythm of a working residency without flattening it. You will document Volume 1 as it unfolds and produce a defined set of visual deliverables in exchange for the residency experience and shared rights. Editorial, documentary, or fine-art backgrounds — rather than commercial.

How we will assess applications

We read every application. Selection is based on the depth and integrity of your practice, the fit between your work and the residency's format, and the way the five practitioners will hold together as a cohort. We are not filling slots — we are composing a group. Different types of practitioners can apply within each field, and the strongest applications from across the fields will shape the final five.

Wooden jetty leading to a small forested island in Cambodia's Koh Rong Archipelago

What is included

For practitioners in residence.

Twelve nights at Song Saa Private Island, single occupancy, all-inclusive (28 October through 9 November; option to depart morning of 10 November to complete work)
All meals across the residency, including the closing Living Systems Dinner
Studio, kitchen, or grounds access appropriate to your discipline
Direct collaboration with the four other practitioners across the residency
Co-production credit on all Volume 1 materials, in perpetuity
Shared rights to the photographer's visual deliverables for your own use
A named place in the founding documentation of the Living Systems Residency category, permanently

What is not included

An exchange, not a paid engagement.

This is an exchange, not a paid engagement. The residency is offered in return for what you bring to the work and what you take from it.

You cover your own flights to Sihanoukville or Phnom Penh
You cover your own ground transfer to Song Saa (we will arrange and bill at cost)
You cover your own visa and travel insurance
There is no honorarium

If your participation depends on receiving a fee, this residency is not the right fit. We say this directly because we would rather find that out before you apply than during the conversation.

What we ask of you

A working residency carries working obligations.

Present for the full twelve days.
Arrival on 28 October, departure on 9 or 10 November. Volume 1 is built around the full presence of all five practitioners. Partial attendance breaks the format.
Development of your own practice during the first ten days.
What you make in residence is yours; we ask that it be in dialogue with the rest of the residency.
Share your practice with guests staying at Song Saa.
During the residency you will be asked to offer moments of your work to the guests on property — an open session, a walk, a kitchen demonstration, or another form appropriate to your discipline.
For artists and creators: leave one body of work at Song Saa.
We will ask you to leave behind one body of work to remain at Song Saa as part of the residency's growing archive and relationship with the property.
One masterclass for the member cohort during the closing weekend.
Roughly ninety minutes, designed by you, delivered between 7 and 8 November.
Contribution to the Living Systems Dinner on 8 November.
A specific role on the closing night — a course, a practice, a reading, a sonic moment, an image. Decided collaboratively in the weeks before the residency.
One sit-down conversation with the storyteller.
They are gathering the written record. You give them an hour.
Permission for the photographer to document your practice.
Within agreed limits and with shared rights to the resulting work.
A written reflection within thirty days of the residency.
Five hundred to a thousand words, used in Volume 1's published archive and in the case study.

A swimmer moving through dark water at golden hour, light refracting on skin

The exchange

From performance to contribution — co-authored with Cambodian knowledge.

The residency is built around exchange, not extraction. Each resident develops one Living Contribution — a regenerative practice that remains active at Song Saa after the residency ends.

1. From performance to contribution

Each resident leaves behind operational value, not only memories. What that looks like depends on the discipline: for chefs, low-impact fishing or sourcing protocols, zero-waste preservation techniques adapted to island conditions, plant-forward frameworks using underutilised local crops, or seasonal menus aligned with ecological cycles. For artists and photographers, a body of work grounded in the Koh Rong archipelago that enters the property's visual language — image libraries, editorial assets, place-based iconography usable across marketing and guest-facing storytelling. For wellness practitioners, rituals and movement practices calibrated to the reef and the tides, embedded into the spa programme or staff wellbeing modules. For naturalists, interpretation frameworks that sharpen how the Song Saa Foundation story is told to guests. In every case, the deliverable is a staff-facing training module or a documented protocol — something the property continues to use.

2. Cambodian knowledge as co-author

The residency centres Cambodian culinary, ecological, and cultural knowledge as equal authorship. Each resident is paired with a Cambodian collaborator working in the same or adjacent field — a chef, cook, elder, fisher, Foundation team member, Khmer artist or craftsperson, or Prek Svay knowledge-holder. Contributions are co-designed and co-credited. Cambodian voices are visible across the editorial, the dinner, the report, and the content library. The programme moves from exchange toward shared authorship and restitution.

3. Ecological constraints as creative catalysts

Innovation is driven by real environmental limits: at least one day without animal protein; one dish or contribution built around an overlooked or undervalued species; one intervention designed to reduce pressure on coral reef fisheries; and one meal conceived for staff-village scalability, not guest service. Constraints become the source of originality and insight.

Program flow

Immersion

Participants engage directly with fishers, farmers, conservation teams, and Song Saa operations to understand real ecological and supply-chain dynamics.

Co-creation

Practitioners develop their Living Contributions within defined ecological and operational boundaries.

Integration

Practices are transferred to Song Saa teams through training, documentation, and implementation planning (if applicable).

What you can expect to take with you

The residency itself, and what it leaves behind.

Twelve days of immersive practice at one of the most considered properties in Southeast Asia
Direct working relationship with four practitioners outside your own discipline
Membership in the founding cohort of a residency format that will run twice yearly at Song Saa and travel to other properties from 2027 onwards
A documented body of work from Volume 1 — photography, video, written record — that you are credited in and have rights to use
A place in a network of practitioners building the next generation of regenerative practice
Editorial coverage in target publications via the two invited journalists, where relevant to your work
The residency itself: an extended period in residence at Song Saa with peers across disciplines, which is rare and difficult to manufacture

Who this residency is not for

Clarity protects everyone's time.

Practitioners who require an honorarium to participate. Volume 1 is structured as an exchange, not a paid engagement. If a fee is part of how your work is engaged, this format is not the right fit.
Practitioners looking for a personal retreat. This is a working residency. There will be open time, but the residency is not built around your rest.
Practitioners who need solo time to produce. The format is collaborative. If your practice requires isolation, the residency will frustrate you.
Practitioners who cannot commit to the full twelve days. Partial attendance does not work for this format. If 28 October to 9 November is not possible for you, Volume 2 in May 2027 may be a better fit.
Anyone who treats the cohort or property staff with anything other than full respect. This is the only non-negotiable.

How to apply

Short and direct. Open until 15 August 2026.

Applications open until 15 August 2026. We will respond to every applicant by 5 September 2026. The five practitioners will be confirmed and announced publicly by mid-September.

The application is intentionally short. We are not asking for proposals or treatments. We are asking who you are, what you do, and why this residency. We assess every application on its own merits and select the strongest across the five fields.

A note on the exchange

This is an exchange, not a paid engagement.

Volume 1 is structured as an exchange. What we offer you is twelve nights in residence at Song Saa, all meals, studio and grounds access, direct collaboration with four practitioners across other disciplines, a co-production credit on everything Volume 1 produces, shared rights to the visual work made in residence, and a permanent named place in the founding documentation of the Living Systems Residency category.

What you offer in return is your practice, in full presence, for the twelve days — a masterclass for the member cohort, a contribution to the closing Living Systems Dinner, a sit-down with the storyteller, and a written reflection afterwards. Your accommodation, F&B, and the residency programming are all paid for by Song Saa as the founding property and by Regenerative Travel as the format's producer. The format works when practitioners arrive on their own terms, with the exchange — not a fee — shaping the energy they bring.

About Song Saa

The founding property.

Song Saa Private Island is a twenty-seven-hectare property in Cambodia's Koh Rong Archipelago. The property has stewarded a marine reserve for more than a decade, operates a working farm that supplies its kitchens, and has been recognized across the region for its commitment to regenerative hospitality.

Melita Koulmandas, Song Saa's founder, has been part of shaping Volume 1 from the start. The verticals, the talents, and the closing dinner are co-designed with the property. Song Saa is the founding property of the Living Systems Residency category — named in the format's lineage in perpetuity.

More about Song Saa ↗

Aerial view of Song Saa Private Island in Cambodia

Overwater villa with thatched roof at Song Saa

Top-down view of Song Saa's jetty and beach

Students walking on the island, part of the Song Saa Foundation

Fishermen sorting nets in the Koh Rong Archipelago

Song Saa Private Island · Koh Ouen, Cambodia

Volume 1 · Apply by 15 August 2026

Five practitioners. One island. Twelve days.

28 October – 8 November 2026. Volume 1 of the Living Systems Residency.

Apply by 15 August