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 Biocultural Conservation and Tourism Management Plan
Date: 2013 - 2014
Location: Bali, ID
Project Team: Julia Watson + Dr. J. Steven Lansing + The Christensen Fund in association with The Samdhana Institute
Client: Ministry of Culture and Education
Julia as Studio Rede led the proposal for Bali’s first UNESCO World Heritage site, which offered comprehensive guidelines to achieve the conservation goals established in the site’s nomination of sixteen thousand hectares of sacred rice terraces and water temples.
Designed by Julia and written in collaboration with Balinese expert Dr. J. Steven Lansing, the Tourism Management and Conservation Plan titled "Pintu Gerbang Tanah Suci" translates into 'Gateway to Sacred Lands': A New Model for World Heritage Conservation. The plan celebrates and protects the unique cultural and biological diversity of the five sites, while also introducing innovation through new forms of governance and landscape eco-technology.
Commissioned by the Indonesian government’s Ministry for Culture and Education, the design concept re-imagines the World Heritage visitor experience starting and ending at interpretive walks and lookouts, upgraded museum exhibits, and sustainable local eco-entrepreneurial pilot projects funded by tourism. The proposal offers a comprehensive plan to achieve the conservation goals in the Management Plan for the Bali World Heritage.
