First-ever compendium of indigenous technologies provides a powerful toolkit for climate-resilient design
Text by Sala Elise Patterson
“Julia Watson’s lush and meticulous new book, Lo—TEK: Design by Radical Indigenism, provides a blueprint for sustainable architecture in the 21st century. For designers of the built environment, it is a first-ever compendium of overlooked design technologies from indigenous groups around the world. For the intrepid traveler or curious citizen, it is an invitation to know millennia-old societies thriving in symbiosis with nature thanks to local ingenuity, creativity, spirituality, and resourcefulness. For the indigenous groups represented, it is source of satisfaction from seeing contemporary design scholarship catch up with their time-tested practices.”