LH Talk: Julia Watson's Lo-TEK Water: Design And Indigenous Aquatic Technologies
Designer, consultant, award-winning educator, and bestselling author Julia Watson aims to redefine the future of climate-resilient design through Indigenous knowledge systems. She coined the global Lo—TEK movement—an emerging design philosophy grounded in Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK), reciprocity, and intercultural co-design.
Julia Watson will talk about how ancestral technologies, land-based practices, material systems, and living infrastructures that have sustained human and ecological systems over time inform contemporary design. She will focus more specifically on the subject of her second book, Lo—TEK, Water (TASCHEN, 2025), a follow-up to Lo—TEK, Design by Radical Indigenism (TASCHEN, 2019). This field guide dives into water-based Indigenous technologies that have sustained communities for millennia. From floating farms in Bangladesh to water cleansing wetlands in China, Watson illuminates how water is not just a resource, but a living teacher.
The book will be available for purchase.
About Lo—TEK, Water, A Field Guide for TEKnology (TASCHEN, 2025)
Co-authored with Indigenous knowledge-keepers, with a foreword by Dr. Lyla June Johnson (Diné/Tsétsėhéstȧhese), this field guide to Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) features ancestral water systems—like floating farms and tidal fish traps—alongside 22 inspiring modern contemporary TEK projects—including Peru’s reed-insulated housing, Thailand’s terraced rooftop farms, and China’s Sponge Cities—proving TEK continues to drive transformative design. Witness a paradigm shift for architects and policymakers seeking biocultural resilience and regenerative urban futures. Learn more.
About Julia Watson
Julia Watson is an Australian-born designer, educator, author, TED speaker, and radical thought leader of Greco-Egyptian-English heritage, known for championing climate-resilient design through ancestral technologies. Trained as an architect in First Nations knowledge systems, she spearheads the global Lo—TEK movement. She co-founded the Lo—TEK Institute and the Lo—TEK Office for Intercultural Urbanism, both co-led by Indigenous and non-Indigenous designers and scientists. A lecturer at Harvard and Columbia, Watson has collaborated with NIKE, LEGO, Gensler, and Buro Happold, continually redefining sustainability through ancestral wisdom.
