Julia Watson designs built environments with an eye towards sustainability, climate resilience and dismantling the barriers between urban environments and the natural world.
Why you should listen
Architect, design activist and academic Julia Watson is a leading expert on Indigenous technologies and author of Lo-TEK, Design by Radical Indigenism. She teaches urban design at Harvard and Columbia while leading her eponymous experiential, landscape and urban design studio.
Watson approaches design as rewilding, by bringing the language of botany and biodiversity back to our cities. Inspired by Indigenous knowledge and plants, her portfolio of projects includes the Rockefeller Center Summer Gardens, Bali’s first UNESCO World Heritage site, the Gateway to the City of El Segundo at LAX and private estates for the owners of PACE Galleries and the artist Rashid Johnson.
Julia Watson’s TED Talk
More news and ideas from Julia Watson
Arts + Design
Photo gallery: How Indigenous natural technologies can help us adapt to climate change
March 4, 2021
From biodegradable islands to living root bridges, these designs -- as researched and highlighted by Julia Watson -- can help us build infrastructure that coexists harmoniously with the natural world.
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Beauty everywhere: Notes from Session 6 of TED2020
June 26, 2020
We’re six weeks into TED2020! For session 6: a celebration of beauty on every level, from planet-trekking feats of engineering to art that deeply examines our past, present, future — and much more. Elizabeth “Zibi” Turtle, planetary scientist Big idea: The Dragonfly Mission, set to launch in 2026, will study Titan, the largest moon orbiting […]
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