Ideas worth spreading

How to build a resilient future using ancient wisdom

546,580 views |

Julia Watson |

TED2020

• June 2020

In her global exploration of Indigenous design systems, architect Julia Watson researches enduring innovations that could help us counter the challenges of climate change. From floating villages to living root bridges that strengthen over time, Watson introduces us to some of these resilient solutions -- and shows how they can teach us to design with nature, instead of against it.

In her global exploration of Indigenous design systems, architect Julia Watson researches enduring innovations that could help us counter the challenges of climate change. From floating villages to living root bridges that strengthen over time, Watson introduces us to some of these resilient solutions -- and shows how they can teach us to design with nature, instead of against it.

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Donate to The Iraq Foundation to support the Ma’dan of the Floating Islands in the Southern Wetlands of Iraq.

Learn more about Give A Little–Ektu Deen, an initiative dedicated to supporting the Bengalese of the East Kolkata Wetlands in recovering from COVID-19 and Cyclone Amphan.

Learn more about the Living Bridge Foundation, a group of young local people dedicated to preserving, protecting and multiplying the tradition of constructing the living root bridges of the Khasi in Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, India.

Learn more about the work of the Benin Environment and Education Society, which promotes the protection and sustainable management of natural resources and biodiversity in two wetland sites in Benin.

About the speaker

Julia Watson

Designer, academic, author

See speaker profile

Julia Watson designs built environments with an eye towards sustainability, climate resilience and dismantling the barriers between urban environments and the natural world.

Julia Watson | TASCHEN, 2020 | Book

Lo―TEK. Design by Radical Indigenism

Bernard Rudofsky | University of New Mexico Press, 1987 | Book

Architecture Without Architects: A Short Introduction to Non-Pedigreed Architecture

Fikret Berkes | Routledge, 2017 | Book

Sacred Ecology

Mark Dowie | The MIT Press, 2017 | Book

Conservation Refugees: The Hundred-Year Conflict between Global Conservation and Native Peoples

This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.

Donate to The Iraq Foundation to support the Ma’dan of the Floating Islands in the Southern Wetlands of Iraq.

Learn more about Give A Little–Ektu Deen, an initiative dedicated to supporting the Bengalese of the East Kolkata Wetlands in recovering from COVID-19 and Cyclone Amphan.

Learn more about the Living Bridge Foundation, a group of young local people dedicated to preserving, protecting and multiplying the tradition of constructing the living root bridges of the Khasi in Jaintia Hills of Meghalaya, India.

Learn more about the work of the Benin Environment and Education Society, which promotes the protection and sustainable management of natural resources and biodiversity in two wetland sites in Benin.