Lo–Tek: Design by Radical Indigenism

by Julia Watson

Three hundred years ago, intellectuals of the European Enlightenment constructed a mythology of technology. Influenced by a confluence of humanism, colonialism, and racism, this mythology ignored local wisdom and indigenous innovation, deeming it primitive. Today, we have slowly come to realize that the legacy of this mythology is haunting us.

Designers understand the urgency of reducing humanity’s negative environmental impact, yet perpetuate the same mythology of technology that relies on exploiting nature. Responding to climate change by building hard infrastructures and favoring high-tech homogenous design, we are ignoring millennia-old knowledge of how to live in symbiosis with nature. Without implementing soft systems that use biodiversity as a building block, designs remain inherently unsustainable.Lo―TEK, derived from Traditional Ecological Knowledge, is a cumulative body of multigenerational knowledge, practices, and beliefs, countering the idea that indigenous innovation is primitive and exists isolated from technology. It is sophisticated and designed to sustainably work with complex ecosystems.

With a foreword by anthropologist Wade Davis and four chapters spanning Mountains, Forests, Deserts, and Wetlands, this book explores thousands of years of human wisdom and ingenuity from 20 countries including Peru, the Philippines, Tanzania, Kenya, Iran, Iraq, India, and Indonesia. We rediscover an ancient mythology in a contemporary context, radicalizing the spirit of human nature.

Genres: Architecture, Nonfiction, Design, Nature, Environment, Sustainability, History

420 pages, Hardcover

First published December 13, 2019

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Born in Australia but based in New York, Julia is leading the field in search of Lo—TEK indigenous, nature-based technologies for climate-resilient design. She teaches urban design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

Reviews

[David Bjelland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Is it a technical architectural/agricultural book? A work of academic anthropology?

A coffee table book? A polemical zine?

It's all of these, without committing to any one genre in particular. I'm going to go ahead and say that it's primarily a Vibe Book, and on the level it definitely succeeds.

Some things it accomplishes or communicates well:

* It just looks freaking cool (visually-striking art and photography, helpful diagrams, playful-but-still-readable typesetting and layout choices, etc)

* Documents the substantial harms of the conservationist mindset across the world, in how it obstructs and villainizes sustainable indigenous practices

* Treats the indigenous cultures it profiles with respect and curiosity rather than just mining them for their best ideas or for pity in documenting their plight in the face of modern industrial incursions

* Illustrates over and over again the false binary of "stewardship" and "exploitation". It's easy to be skeptical of the idea that altering the landscape in a way that provides for human needs could also serve to increase native biodiversity and restore habitat (in no small part because it's so often used towards the ends of dishonest green-washing by the likes of timber companies), but Lo-TEK makes it vivid and irrefutable.

So there was potential here for it to be a 5 star book, and I do think there's a 5 star book buried in the real book somewhere. But for all the lavish attention to detail paid to its visual design, the writing is... astonishingly bad. Audaciously bad, even, given the book's pricetag and the primary author's academic pedigree.

Bland; stilted; careless; fluffy; repetitive; evasive; pat...

Writing so bad it could take as its subject matter something as rich and under-documented as "indigenous design", and then render it almost unreadable except in ≤ 20 minute bursts.

Entire academese-clogged paragraphs go by sometimes without imparting a single nugget of content that isn't either tautological, regurgitating some terms and proper nouns that'll never be followed up on, or just restating vague assertions and value judgements from elsewhere in the chapter.

In its weakest stretches, you feel like you're reading an undergrad midterm paper frantically jerry-built the morning of, with one eye permanently glued to the word count indicator, by a student who attended the lectures but only skimmed the assigned readings.

As exasperating as the filler can be, at least it has the virtue of being easily parsed as you scan ahead and find where the thread picks up again; better at least than the parts so incoherent it completely derails your brain faster than it can register as skippable.

As an example, try out this sentence from chapter 2 -

"By working with nature's innate intelligence, this indigenous innovation has evolved sophisticated and resilient water-based infrastructures."

Now read it again, and try to answer even the most basic questions about its content - what is acting, what is being acted on, and how.

You can't. It's like a linguistic version of the "Name One Thing In This Photo" meme. The "copyediting"/"proofreading" firms in the credits deserve to be sued for malpractice. There's a shoddiness to the text on a sentence-by-sentence level that's totally incongruous with the painstakingly sumptuous presentation.

Now, if Lo-TEK positioned itself as a humble coffee table book and visual reference, then hauling out the junk text and straightening out what's left would leave the reader with a satisfying, well-contained package. But Lo-TEK insists on also being taken seriously as An Urgent Manifesto and viable roadmap for action, and I just don't think there's any amount of editorial magic that could elevate it to the level of rigor that type of project demands.

Not that I pretend I'm qualified to weigh in on whether these kinds of Lo-TEK solutions could feasibly scale to support all ~8 billion people on the planet today. In fact, I almost think it'd be counterproductive - if you accept that the current system is fundamentally unsustainable, then all that needs to be demonstrated is that they can and should be more widely implemented than they are now. Instead, what strikes me as the fatal flaw in the specific way this book frame its thesis is this:

Lo-TEK conceives of designs as being inextricable from their designers' culturally-binding myths, while at the same time reveling in the idiosyncratic indigenous mythologies that "produced" the very designs it holds up as models for us to learn from.

If sustainable designs really do need grounding in "sustainable" myths in some tangible, material way – as opposed to a whimsically speculative thinky-winky way – how do we get there from where we are now? And if not, why distract from the engineering and ecological principles that make the indigenous case-studies worthy of emulation by emphasizing all the inessential, culturally-specific superstitions attached to them? Maybe it's unfair to characterize the book as asserting that the only way forward is to purge our collective cultural memory of things like scientific skepticism and monotheistic human chauvinism, then install a mythology manufactured to be more compatible with species symbiosis in their place... but it doesn't take any pains to steer the reader towards a more substantial/nuanced/pragmatic reading either.

In the end, it all feels somehow of a piece though with the unmistakeable, unwavering Vibe of the book - its particular way of being overstuffed and starry-eyed is both its charm and its downfall. I don't know.

* I learned a lot.

* I think we need to collectively engage with its ideas.

* I'll probably place it somewhere where people are likely to flip through it. Just... hesitate before loaning it to be read cover to cover.

[Neha · Rating 3 out of 5]

No doubt a valuable (and beautifully designed) book for imagining and learning about indigenous technologies across the globe. I appreciated the descriptions of connections between spiritual, cultural and ecological traditions, and how together humans have created sustainable, symbiotic systems with nature. Though Watson rightly criticizes modern conservation's worship of "wilderness" and "saving nature", there was a subtle sentiment was that we still need to "save indigenous people" and "take their climate resilient technologies" back to the U.S. (yay neocolonialism) as opposed to support, lift up and fight for indigenous sovereignty and fundamentally change the U.S. worldview. Her writing was also pretty bad, and very academic. The most interesting parts of the book were the interviews with the tired change-makers in the communities that worked between indigenous people's needs and the modern world.

All in all, glad I read the book. It's clear Watson is trying to do right, but is coming from a stilted American-academic worldview.

[Ethan Matthews · Rating 3 out of 5]

A beautiful but conflicted book. In creating Lo-TEK as using traditional ecological knowledge as an approach for designing, Watson claims it as her own. The writing feels extractive, as though she hasn’t really built relationships with the indigenous people she writes about, instead claiming the knowledge as her own. It reads like a textbook (literally, because of the definitions and organization), and is way too impersonal where she could focus more on history and spirituality of the indigenous peoples, and get more personal.

Nonetheless, it’s a beautiful book with amazing illustrations and photographs, although the drawings are architecturalized to the point where many are unnecessary and sterilize the “nature” she writes about. TEK is vital to surviving as a species and succeeding as designers, but Lo-TEK comes off as insensitive, impersonal, and academic, even if it’s contents are astounding.

[Márcia Figueira · Rating 5 out of 5]

deep glance into humanity' brains.
found the roots of everything that amazes me.


'we cannot find solutions to the problems we face with the same ideology from which those problems emerged.

our global survival is dependent upon our thinking shifting from 'survival of the fittest' to 'survival of the most symbiotic'

ironically, many contemporary green technologies (...) have been around for thousands of years, being rediscovered only when packaged as new.

rooting our very relationship with nature from superior to symbiotic'




Fy homo economicus. Keep singing to baby rice.

[Jen Bracken-Hull · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was the candle of hope I needed right now. Beautiful.

[MI A · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book so far this year!

Julia Watson takes the reader through the Americas, Africa, Asia, And the Middle East where she shines a light on the sustainable Technologies that have been in use by indigenous people for centuries. Close your eyes and imagine crops that don’t need pesticides, floating houses, living bridges, and farms that grow paradises. Such notions are not fantasies but real places built by real people….and they are slowly being killed by Rupert Murdoch’s closest friends.
What I find so refreshing about this book is that it positions humans as “a part of” rather than “an enemy” of nature. Ecological degradation is less an inherent part of humanity but more the result of a cultural mindset that seeks dominance over symbiosis. I have noted that previous books relating to environmental issues often commit the sin of lumping the global south in with the global north when the conversation turns to carrying capacity and ecological destruction. Watson notes that this is the very mindset that prompted the expulsion of Native Americans from the United States natural parks system.

The modern western ecological mindset positions all humanity as destructive to nature, ignoring the fact that it is not so much people that are a danger to nature but “the west” itself. Watson documents how our planet’s original cultures integrated themselves with their natural systems and how their disappearance will fuel further ecological instability. It is my hope that more works such as this will prompt us to safeguard the people who live sustainably as their methods are clean, affordable, and beautiful. Moreover I hope this book can prompt the beginning of a broader lifestyle shift where a slower, less consumer-based existence is the norm.

The earth will not be saved by shopping. In fact, we must destroy shopping.

Land back.

[Brian · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super cool book, case studies of indigenous solutions and innovations using local materials, and all the while enriching biodiversity. Great photos and well designed schematics of how each example of TEK works. Traditional ecological knowledge rules!

[Kim Zinkowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

The design and binding of book are very well done, although some of the small print strained my eyes. There were a few copy-editing errors that were slightly distracting. Overall, I enjoyed the book and learned much about some of the inventive indigenous design of dwellings and farming systems that I had not known about prior to reading this book. Lo (local)- TEK (traditional ecological knowledge).

[Diego · Rating 5 out of 5]

Took a long journey for me to finish this book, but could have finished it within a week. The dense information certainly did not lack in research. The formatting and the diagrams also helped a lot in understanding how these systems worked.

Personally, it was a good read. It is a designer manifesto in protecting these dying traditional practices and I'm very glad someone took the time to record it into a publication.

[Nieves add me on storygraph nievesv · Rating 2 out of 5]

pretty pictures, but really inaccurate and harmful language used to depict Indigenous global populations

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful book that begins to catalogue a collection of under-appreciated ecological innovations developed by indigenous cultures around the world.

Watson examines people and their adaptations to mountain, forest, desert and wetland environments. The author does a good job of balancing a reverence for these systems and the cultures that produced them, while acknowledging the pressures and threats modern industrial/post-industrial civilizations pose.

Inspiring research important both from an environmental and cultural perspective. Would love to see more scholarship in this vein, particularly in northern environments. Also appreciate the semi-optimistic note it ends; acknowledging the ubiquity of human impact in the Anthropocene but conceding that not all human interactions with the environment are inherently destructive and can in fact be mutually beneficial as is the case with many of the groups examined.

All that said probably best approached in bite sized portions, reading it straight through was a bit of a slog.

[✧]

its so interesting to think how nowadays the perception of modern technology has shifted to be more associated with the exploitation of nature and how it has often been perceived as contradictory with traditional values and progressively distanced itself from natural system all while deeming indigenous and ancestral technologies are inferior or outdated compared to the so-called-modern technology. we need to redefine & ask ourselves what “technology” rly is — as an undergrad arch stud who had all these years shaped & fed by a dominant paradigm that consistently equates technology with modernity, futurism, and advanced machinery. but sure all ideas presented here are not without room for critique; some of the thought may evolve over time, maybe not. all in all, undeniably beautiful book.

[Vivian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely an interesting read and insightful into how indigenous communities around the world are able to hone into what nature has already provided and manipulate it organically into something that they desire. I wonder how we could hone some of these ideas into urban spaces and what we might be able to learn in the process of trying to green our spaces. Could we harness indigenous ways of thinking in enhancing urban spaces to work more with nature rather than against it?

[Darnell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to rate, because it's half-way between a textbook and a coffee table book. The artsy pages didn't do a lot for me, but I definitely enjoyed the insights into the architecture of so many different cultures.

Trivial: the margin definitions were at times bizarre. Who would be reading a book like this and find words like "mythology" confusing?

[AskNezka · Rating 3 out of 5]

The breadth of Indigenous knowledge presented in this book is really diverse, especially for a newbie to the subject.

For the book design nerds: However not a fan of the low tech physical book design is really flimsy and not a good example of what LO-TEK is trying to argue because it should still work, even if simple.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a cool book! If you’re interested in the environment, how to build things, agriculture etc then definitely read it. That said, it’s not exactly a cover-to-cover read. More like a reference book to pick up and put down and then pick up again a few weeks or months later. I also loved the binding and cover—you can see the way it’s sewn, which is surely by design.

[candle]

this book was very much my vibe though i hoped for something a little more in the vein of low tech magazine which attempts to speculate about how our current society could begin to reincorporate these historic practices in a sustainable future

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is incredible! I actually can't stop talking about it to everyone. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to find out more about the incredible ways humans have adapted their environment, and about how indigenous cultures are the key to saving the planet.

[Floer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Schön und übersichtlich aufbereitete Sammlung von Beispielen. Nur die Texte sind leider repetitiv und etwas oberflächlich, stellenweise vielleicht auch etwas unkritisch.
Die einzelnen Beiträge bleiben daher nur appetit anregende Häppchen, als solche aber sehr gut.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Diverse sourcing, thoroughly researched, beautifully composed

[Artur Llinares · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hermoso y repleto de información.

Es un libro que, antes que bonito,es útil para estar al día de algunas de als cosas mas interesantes que se están llevando a cabo alrededor del mundo.

[Kyle B · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite guide to highly localized engineering

[John]

it’s not really something you read all the way through. i shall return to this as a reference book

[Luis · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing read that should be mandatory reading for anyone studying landscape architecture, civil engineering, hydrology, agriculture or other fields related to the types of designs featured in this book. The innovative and ingenious designs in Lo-Tek demonstrate the power in being able to serve critical needs to support daily life for indigenous populations while also being exemplary stewards to the Earth. That's something we should all be aspiring to achieve as a civilization. The graphics and imagery also do a fantastic job of demonstrating the "mechanics" behind these design solutions.

While this isn't so much a negative, naturally, there are going to be some specific design types that are more interesting than others. There were some that I was captivated by, while others were much less interesting.

I highly recommend this book if you love learning about the design of the built environment, Earth science, biology and indigenous history and culture.

[Kytana · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book's closing excerpt says it best:

Climate change has shown us that our survival is not dependent upon superiority but upon symbiosis. In the shift towards designing resilient cities, *Lo-TEK and Indigenous technologies are critical in the conversation for designers addressing climate change, as they are living examples that embody resilience thinking. We need to expand our definition of sustainable technology to encompass the*Lo-TEK* Movement and in its effort to alter the course of collapse. Acknowledging the mistakes of modernity and the failure of conservation, we can shift our position of authority to one of collaboration with nature.

5/5 ⭐, This was not only an informative read but a well-rounded one that surveyed global indigenous technologies. This is so much more than a coffee table book as is often the advertisement of Taschen books, and I'm glad I took my time reading each chapter.

* Lo-TEK- A design movement to rebuild an understanding of Indigenous philosophy and vernacular architecture that generates sustainable, climate-resilient infrastructures.

[Philipp · Rating 2 out of 5]

though the topic is interesting, the text quality is mediocre. it seems like no one edited the content, as it is repetitive and there are quite a few spelling errors. also, the images are few and disappointing:(