Elevating
Traditional
Ecological
Knowledge
The ideas behind Lo—TEK were first introduced in the bestselling book Lo—TEK: Design by Radical Indigenism, and further expanded in its follow-up, Lo—TEK Water: A Field Guide for TEKnology. Together, these publications embody the technologies of over forty local communities and form a foundation for a growing appendix of work that documents and celebrates the intelligence of ecosystems shaped by human hands in relationship with nature.
“A visual masterpiece and manifesto that urges us to rethink progress.”
— The Guardian
Lo—TEK
Design by Radical Indigenism
Lo—TEK is a design movement and research framework that reintroduces Indigenous and ancestral technologies as critical tools for addressing climate, ecological, and urban challenges. Coined by designer, author, and educator Julia Watson, through her collaborative work with 18 indigenous communities around the globe, Lo—TEK offers a counterpoint to high-tech, extractive systems that dominate mainstream approaches to sustainability.
Through years of fieldwork, collaboration with Indigenous peoples, and interdisciplinary research, Lo—TEK has become a growing body of work that documents and recognizes the ingenuity of ecosystems shaped through the partnership of humans and the natural world. These systems include living infrastructures such as floating farms, water temples, forest islands, and terraced landscapes—technologies that are not relics of the past, but blueprints for regenerative futures.
Lo—TEK, an acronym for
(Lo)cal + (T)raditional
(E)cological (K)nowledge