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Julia Watson
LoβTEK. Design by Radical Indigenism
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Format: Hardback
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Julia Watson
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?
This book is essential reading for designers, architects, environmentalists, and anyone interested in sustainable innovation, indigenous knowledge, and the intersection of culture and ecology. Its blend of detailed research and elegant presentation also appeals to readers of arts and culture seeking profound insights into humanityβs relationship with nature.
Enter Lo-TEK, a design movement building on indigenous philosophy and vernacular infrastructure to generate sustainable, resilient, nature-based technology. Spanning 18 countries from Peru and the Philippines to Tanzania and Iran, this book explores millennia-old human ingenuity on how to live in symbiosis with nature.
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Description
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 realise 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 favouring 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, Julia Watson explores thousands of years of human wisdom and ingenuity from 18 countries including Peru, the Philippines, Tanzania, Kenya, Iran, Iraq, India, and Indonesia. We rediscover an ancient mythology in a contemporary context, radicalising the spirit of human nature.
The tactile reading experience of Lo-TEK reflects the ingenuity of carefully selected projects with sophisticated design details: copper highlights the value of ancient knowledge, a cardboard hardcover echoes rawness, and the Swiss binding showcases an open spine and reveals the construction of the book, just as the book discloses hidden technological knowledge.
Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?
Praised for combining scientific rigour with evocative storytelling, the book has been described as a "beautiful work" by The World of Interiors and an inspiring 400-page journey by Vogue. The Guardian notes Watson's careful documentation of indigenous innovations using architectural language, while architecturaldigest.com highlights examples of centuries-old design combatting climate change. The Harvard University Graduate School of Design calls it "a blueprint for sustainable architecture in the 21st century," and independent.co.uk praises its radical reimagining of human nature.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9783836578189
Publisher: Taschen GmbH
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 14 November 2019
Country: Germany
Imprint: Taschen GmbH
Illustration: 411 Illustrations
Contributors:
- By Berke YazΔ±cΔ±oΔlu
- Designed by WβE studio
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 31.0mm
Width: 170.0mm
Height: 244.0mm
Weight: 1069g
Pages: 420
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About the Author
Berke Yazicioglu studied in Chicago before settling in London. Moving fluidly between digital drawing, painting, illustration, and design, he explores the tension between longing and order, reflecting on wider social and cultural currents. His visual narratives have featured in The New Yorker, Wired, Die Zeit, and Dezeen.
W-E studio is the multidisciplinary graphic design studio of Piera Wolf and Claudine Eriksson. Being based between Zurich and New York means bridging time and space is second nature to the practice. The studio is dedicated to creating meaningful and striking visual languages for clients within the arts, hospitality, fashion, music and other commercial sectors.
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