Julia Watson

Designer, activist, academic and author, Julia Watson is a leading expert on Indigenous nature-based technologies. Her unconventional research led her to writing and design projects inspired by pilgrimages to sacred natural sites, while her formal education has led to speaking and teaching positions with TED, NPR, The Long Now, Harvard, Columbia, RISD, and Rensselaer universities. Her work has been widely published in journals such as SPOOL, KOOZARCH, LAF, Topos, Scroope Journal, and the UN’s Indigenous Peoples and Climate Technologies Guidebook. In 2019, Taschen published her award-winning best-seller, Lo-TEK: Design by Radical Indigenism, to be followed by a sequel, Lo—TEK: Water, in 2025. Coined by Julia, Lo—TEK has been featured twice in The New York Times, The Guardian, Monocle, and Architectural Digest and many more publications. Her work has been supported by a Christensen Fund grant, an Arnold W. Brunner award for Architectural Research, and two New York State Council of the Arts Architecture + Design awards. Her studio work involves landscape and urban design projects, writing, lecturing and futures consulting for the sustainability & innovation sectors.