Eight #Indigenous technologies that could turn the tide on how we manage water
by Rima Sabina Aouf | 24 October 2025
"Architect #JuliaWatson has followed up her seminal book #LoTEK with a new volume focused specifically on Indigenous approaches to extreme water scenarios. Here, she shares an exclusive preview of eight examples from #FloatingFarms to #SpongeParks.
"With the first Lo-TEK book, subtitled Design by #RadicalIndigenism , Watson introduced readers, many for the first time, to the idea of TEK, or traditional ecological knowledge.
"These are #building, #landscaping and #farming practices that belong to the world's Indigenous communities and hold great lessons for Western practitioners trying to design for #ClimateResilience.
"With #LoTEKWater, the Australian architect wanted to take a deep dive into water as the element linking four different climate-related disasters: #droughts, #flooding, #SeaLevelRise and #ExtremeStorms.
"The book also puts more of a focus on instances where TEK and contemporary #UrbanDesign are already working together.
" 'Through the lens of water, I wanted to understand the potential of hybridisation and co-design,' Watson told #Dezeen. 'How does a non-Indigenous design practice or scientist or institution work with an Indigenous community and their knowledge to shape some of the most resilient urban landscapes?'
" 'And with urbanism, I'm talking about cities, villages, rural landscapes, peri-urban landscapes – not just city landscapes.'
"Co-authored with Indigenous #KnowledgeKeepers and experts, Lo-TEK Water features both traditional and contemporary projects from countries including #Mexico, #China, #Tunisia, #Canada, #Peru and #India.
" 'There are so many varied ways in which traditional ecological knowledge is being merged with engineering systems, #cladding, #roofing – in architecture but also in landscape, creating really large-scale infrastructures and our most resilient urban parkland on the planet,' Watson said.
"Read on for Watson's introduction to eight key projects from the book, showing the diversity of ways that water-based TEK shows up around the world."
Learn more:
dezeen.com/2025/10/24/lo-tek-w…
#SolarPunkSunday #WaterIsLife #TEK #IndigenousSolutions #ClimateSolutions #ClimateResiliency #WorkWithNature #ClimateChange #TraditionalPractices #TraditionalTechnology #TraditionalEcologicalKnowledge #IndigenousKnowledge
Eight Indigenous technologies that could turn the tide on how we manage water
Architect Julia Watson has followed up her seminal book Lo-TEK with a new volume focused specifically on Indigenous approaches to extreme water scenarios. Here, she shares an exclusive preview of eight examples from floating farms to sponge parks.Rima Sabina Aouf (Dezeen)
