---
product_id: 168265415
title: "Julia Watson. Lo―TEK. Design by Radical Indigenism"
price: "$129"
currency: NZD
in_stock: true
reviews_count: 12
url: https://www.desertcart.nz/products/168265415-julia-watson-lo-tek-design-by-radical-indigenism
store_origin: NZ
region: New Zealand
---

# Julia Watson. Lo―TEK. Design by Radical Indigenism

**Price:** $129
**Availability:** ✅ In Stock

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- **What is this?** Julia Watson. Lo―TEK. Design by Radical Indigenism
- **How much does it cost?** $129 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.nz](https://www.desertcart.nz/products/168265415-julia-watson-lo-tek-design-by-radical-indigenism)

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## Description

Julia Watson. Lo―TEK. Design by Radical Indigenism [Watson, Julia, Watson, Julia, Studio, W.�e.] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Julia Watson. Lo―TEK. Design by Radical Indigenism

Review: A spectacular account of brilliant design approaches - An impressive overview of highly sophisticated but low-tech cultural adaptions across the planet. The author has clearly communicated a variety of food, building, and material systems which have proven to be sustainable over millennia. The call for a reassessment of value and source of inspiration and reference within the professional design field is a refreshing and overdue response. Challenging many unquestioned sustainability approaches such as typical conservation projects is also important and appreciated. I was grateful to see the author mention conservation refugees and it's heartening to see an architect root and extend their work in traditional ecological knowledge. As a book it's not quite so brilliant - the binding if you can call it that is very fragile. The text is incredibly small and the page design would have benefited greatly from a variety of readers reviewing it. Much of the text is as small as liner notes in a CD - maybe point size 8? Makes my 20/15 vision feel terrible trying to read the captions. Book design conventions are the result of understanding a clear way to communicate information in this format - if you're not improving on it why change it? Huge margins on some pages while some are so small you can't avoid covering text with your fingers while awkward indenting on other pages leaves you wondering if you got a bad printing. The photos however are beautiful and most of the illustrations help communicate the design approaches being covered. Some of the illustrations detract from this. And the book suffers from a general sense of being overly concerned with its presentation and self-conscious. T These critiques aside, it's an incredibly valuable piece of anthropology with examples that today's industrial world urgently needs. It's a massive contribution to the world of sustainable and regenerative design and all those working in the fields of ecological restoration, permaculture, sustainable architecture and design, ecological engineering as well as those simply interested in the indigenous life way and design approaches around the world will find this to be a major contribution to their work. I'll happily duck tape the spine together to keep this on hand as a reference for specific strategies as well as inspiration.
Review: Quality & very designery - The content and quality of this book is fantastic. SUPER inspiring and an excellent resource as a permaculture designer (or regenerative, food systems landscape designer?). Though, if I am being nit-picky as a graphic designer, it is perhaps a bit over designed in a few places. For instance, I don't like the full page photos that have been inverted and colored with a filter--takes away from that actual content of the photograph.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #126,586 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #16 in Sustainability & Green Design #37 in Individual Architects & Firms |
| Customer Reviews | 4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars (430) |
| Dimensions  | 6.69 x 1.22 x 9.61 inches |
| ISBN-10  | 3836578182 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-3836578189 |
| Item Weight  | 2.31 pounds |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 418 pages |
| Publication date  | November 14, 2019 |
| Publisher  | TASCHEN |

## Images

![Julia Watson. Lo―TEK. Design by Radical Indigenism - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/913W73ikKuL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A spectacular account of brilliant design approaches
*by B***N on February 29, 2020*

An impressive overview of highly sophisticated but low-tech cultural adaptions across the planet. The author has clearly communicated a variety of food, building, and material systems which have proven to be sustainable over millennia. The call for a reassessment of value and source of inspiration and reference within the professional design field is a refreshing and overdue response. Challenging many unquestioned sustainability approaches such as typical conservation projects is also important and appreciated. I was grateful to see the author mention conservation refugees and it's heartening to see an architect root and extend their work in traditional ecological knowledge. As a book it's not quite so brilliant - the binding if you can call it that is very fragile. The text is incredibly small and the page design would have benefited greatly from a variety of readers reviewing it. Much of the text is as small as liner notes in a CD - maybe point size 8? Makes my 20/15 vision feel terrible trying to read the captions. Book design conventions are the result of understanding a clear way to communicate information in this format - if you're not improving on it why change it? Huge margins on some pages while some are so small you can't avoid covering text with your fingers while awkward indenting on other pages leaves you wondering if you got a bad printing. The photos however are beautiful and most of the illustrations help communicate the design approaches being covered. Some of the illustrations detract from this. And the book suffers from a general sense of being overly concerned with its presentation and self-conscious. T These critiques aside, it's an incredibly valuable piece of anthropology with examples that today's industrial world urgently needs. It's a massive contribution to the world of sustainable and regenerative design and all those working in the fields of ecological restoration, permaculture, sustainable architecture and design, ecological engineering as well as those simply interested in the indigenous life way and design approaches around the world will find this to be a major contribution to their work. I'll happily duck tape the spine together to keep this on hand as a reference for specific strategies as well as inspiration.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Quality & very designery
*by H***A on March 1, 2025*

The content and quality of this book is fantastic. SUPER inspiring and an excellent resource as a permaculture designer (or regenerative, food systems landscape designer?). Though, if I am being nit-picky as a graphic designer, it is perhaps a bit over designed in a few places. For instance, I don't like the full page photos that have been inverted and colored with a filter--takes away from that actual content of the photograph.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Practical Anthropologial Review of Ancient Farming Techniques that Persist Even Today!
*by D***H on February 5, 2020*

Have you ever felt romantic for the agrarian life? A plow, a field, and seven wives and 50 kids to help do all the manual labor? What would you grow: rice, corn or maybe fish? This book helps put your whim-of-fancy into some practical perspective. By looking at multiple indiginous communities across four key habitats (mountains, flood valley, desserts, and lakes), Julia Watson illustrates the importance of these integrated systems by exploring the the way each of these communities work WITH their environments. On page 19 there is a wonderful flow chart of how individuals, community, culture, and world view are created as a result of working within a local system. This book takes the perspective of an anthropologist and looks broadly at how these communities have survived for millennials. However, I would like to be clear that this is NOT a how-to book. There are no steps on how to grow rice, or farm fish. There ARE diagrams of how cascading rice terraces work, and how floating islands can be made (and there’s more than one way to float an island). I found it amazing that many of these communities are being studied for their CHEMICAL-FREE pest management, and FERTILIZER-FREE high yield crops. This book actually got me thinking about my own plot of earth, and how I could harness the utility of some of the keystone species in my own yard. If that wasn’t enough, this book is gorgeous! From the side sitting binding, to the copper pallet, and the overall inclusiveness (this book is written in English, but includes multiple languages, one for each cultural interview), I feel a little more connected to humanity than I did before reading it. Buy this book and buy less plastic crap!

## Frequently Bought Together

- Julia Watson: Lo-Tek; Design by Radical Indigenism
- Designing Regenerative Cultures

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*Product available on Desertcart New Zealand*
*Store origin: NZ*
*Last updated: 2026-03-11*