HERBOTS
Kato Herbots (BE, 2001) is a product designer and researcher with a material-driven design approach. Her practice challenges anthropocentric preconceptions and explores alternative scenarios by critically examining the relationships between human, materials and context.
With an approach that is both sensitive and situated, she explores how materials and objects are embedded in larger ecological, social and temporal networks, and how they can be altered by actively intervening in these.
Her work is driven by a keen curiosity about the human-nonhuman systems that shape our world. This manifests across a range of topics, including invasive ecologies, soil pollution, and human relationships with environmental actors such as the sun.
Kato is currently a PhD candidate within the Unfolding Ecologies Research Cluster at LUCA School of Arts (BE). Her design research project Gardening towards the Symbiocene investigates the role of material-driven design practice in imagining more-than-human futures.
CONTACT
katoherbots@gmail.com
EXPERIENCE
2026
PhD candidate at Research Cluster Unfolding Ecologies,
LUCA School of Arts
2025
Designer in Residence at Designregio Kortrijk
2024, 2025
Junior Researcher in Design for TransFormMaker at LUCA School of Arts
2023
Intership at Studio Johanna Seelemann
2022
Jobstudent for artistic works at Dementia Lab LUCA School of Arts,
EDUCATION
2022-2024: Master Product Design, with the highest honors
LUCA School of Arts – campus C-mine
2019- 2022: Bachelor Product Design, with high honors
LUCA School of Arts – campus C-mine
2020-2021: Industrial Design
Die Angewandte - Industrial Design 1
Vienna, Austria
Exchange semester
2013-2019: Mathematics and sciences
Hasp-O Centrum
High school
SELECTED ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS & AWARDS
2026
Henry Van De Velde Bronze Award - Design Research for Residents of Solar Space
2024
Ecodesign Award - Inspiring Design for Residents of Solar Space by OVAM & Designmuseum Gent
Ecodesign Award - Human Interest for Residents of Solar Space by OVAM & Knack Weekend
featured in the Class of 2024 by Flanders DC with the graduatation project Residents of Solar Space
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
April 2026
Terra Formata at Coup de Théâtre, a Play of Clay at Abby Museum, Kortrijk, BE
December 2025
Terra Formata at Metamorphosis,
Rhizome_, Kortrijk, BE
September 2025
Residents of Solar Space at Woven Whispers
by Belguim is Design, CID Grand-Hornu, BE
April 2025
Residents of Solar Space at Woven Whispers
by Belguim is Design, Alcova, Milan, IT
February 2025
Residents of Solar Space at Bewoners van De Zonneruimte,
CC De Bogaard, Sint-Truiden, BE
October 2024
Residents of Solar Space at Interwoven,
DDW, Eindhoven, NL
October 2024
Residents of Solar Space at WE ARE THE NEXT GENERATION,
Kortrijk, BE
Oktober 2023
Ad Terram at Interwoven
DDW, Eindhoven, NL
March 2023
Ad Terram at Design is Dead Expo,
C-Mine, Genk, BE
June 2022
THIS IS NOT A BUMP at Angewandte Festival,
Vienna, AT
March 2022
KASK at Reshaped: Post-Industrial crafts,
ADAM Design Museum Brussels, BE
August 2021
KASK at Maastricht conference on Circular Economy,
Maastricht NL