Fostering Our Ecosystems: Co-existence & Climate Resiliency
Now, more than ever, we must recognize the deep interconnectivity of our existence.
Architects and allied professionals have an important role to play in stewarding environmental well-being at local, national, and global scales. How do we help foster climate resiliency for communities and ecosystems in the face of rapid environmental change? Who should we be learning from, collaborating with, and centering in this work as we consider the impacts? And what would it mean to design not just for humans, but for entire ecosystems?
This year’s climate summit will explore the application of co-existence and biodiversity frameworks to demonstrate how the built environment can facilitate whole ecosystem health. Through a full day of thought-provoking and dynamic sessions, we’ll explore actionable strategies to advance sustainability and actively support resilient, interconnected systems—now and into the future.
Join us on May 16, 2025 at PSE’s Auditorium for AIA Seattle’s 2025 Climate Summit: Fostering Our Ecosystems: Co-existence & Climate Resiliency (8 LU/HSW)!
Speakers
Julia Watson, Australian-born and of Greco-Egyptian descent, is a connoisseur of localized traditional ecological knowledge. She is the author of the Lo—TEK, Design by Radical Indigenism (Taschen, 2019), which showcases the soft, earth-based technologies of Indigenous peoples the world over, and the upcoming Lo—TEK Water (2025). Julia has traveled the world over to understand these technologies and respectfully share the messages of their makers with the world. Watson grew up in Australia, where aboriginal science and knowledge is not only acknowledged in the school system but systematically integrated into university curricula. She is thus driven to steer other nations towards properly respecting and integrating Indigenous knowledge into the “mainstream.” She studied landscape architecture at Harvard, taught for over a decade at institutions like Columbia, Harvard and RISD, cofounded the Lo—TEK Institute, which empowers generational wisdom through nature-based education and advocacy, cocreated the The Living Earth Curriculum and Digital Database, which uplift traditional ecological knowledge to enhance STEM programs, and runs a design studio in Brooklyn, New York, which provides strategic consulting and design expertise at the intersection of culture, ecology, and innovation.
