Designer, activist, academic,
and author of Lo—TEK,
Design by Radical Indigenism.
A leading expert of Lo—TEK nature-based technologies for climate-resilience.
Her eponymously named studio brings creative and conceptual, interdisciplinary thinking to urban projects and corporate clients interested in systemic and sustainable change. Julia regularly teaches urban design at Harvard and Columbia University.
Bali UNESCO World Heritage
Subak Farming Collaborative
Traveling Participatory Design Charette
Date: 01/01/2021
Location: City
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Julia Watson co-designed the Pintu Gerbang Tanah Suci plan with Dr. J. Steven Lansing, and brought its vision to life through the Bali Subak Traveling Exhibition, a mobile platform that engaged farming cooperatives in shaping the future of their heritage landscape.
The Traveling Participatory Design Charette and Exhibition was created to bring the vision of Pintu Gerbang Tanah Suci (Gateway to Sacred Lands) directly to the people at the heart of Bali’s heritage—the subak farming cooperatives. Designed as a mobile exhibition, it moved from village to village, transforming community halls into spaces of dialogue, learning, and collective imagination.
At its core, Pintu Gerbang Tanah Suci is more than a conservation plan—it is an invitation to co-create the future of Bali’s sacred landscapes. Developed by Julia Watson and Dr. J. Steven Lansing, and commissioned by Indonesia’s Ministry for Culture and Education, the plan honors 16,000 hectares of rice terraces and water temples that form the living fabric of Bali’s first UNESCO World Heritage nomination.
Through visual displays, maps, and storytelling, the exhibition explained how the plan would strengthen community-led conservation, introduce eco-technologies to protect the terraces, and develop tourism initiatives that channel benefits back to farmers and villages. It also revealed how visitor experiences—interpretive walks, scenic lookouts, and renewed museums—could be designed to honor the sacred relationship between water, rice, and culture, while sustaining local development through eco-entrepreneurial projects.
By carrying these ideas into village meetings, the traveling exhibition enabled subak members to engage directly in the participatory design process. Farmers shared their wisdom, raised questions, and shaped how conservation and tourism could work hand in hand. In this way, the Bali Subak Traveling Exhibition became both a cultural bridge and a planning tool: not only presenting a vision, but inviting the farmers themselves—the stewards of Bali’s heritage—to be co-authors of its future.
