#solarpunk design

first we build up instead of out. That's been an environmentally friendly staple for years.

The basement of buildings houses subways, which travel underground from station to station.

The next floors can shopping areas and/ or hospitals.

Apartments are separate buildings to ensure noise control.

Each building is connected to it's immediate neighbors by a walkway a few stories up. This is for pedestrians and people in mobility vehicles like wheelchairs.

The area outside the building is forested and left relatively wild. Local plant and animal species may make their home there.

Concrete paths run on the ground from building to building so that bicyclists, joggers, and people in mobility vehicles may travel from place to place outdoors if they wish.

People may arrive from outside the city by train, plane, or automobile.

Trains connect major cities, with the rest of the land left to local flora and fauna.

Airports are the only exception to the "trees everywhere" rule because they require so much takeoff room.

Automobiles may arrive from highways connecting cities but they are expected to be parked and not used in the city itself.

In instances of needing large vehicles to move big/ many objects, vertical street cars may be rented.

These are located at the top of buildings and travel on electric tracks between them.

Small objects that need to move around the city, such as groceries or electronic products, are done by drone.

This is already a staple in Korea where citizens can order things off their phone from stores or warehouses and a drone carries it right to their door.

Apartment complexes will have community gardens on the roof and/or indoors depending on local climate. Families can rent plots to grow veggies for themselves if desired.

The sides of buildings will feature vertical gardens as well. Which can be food or simply local flowers to encourage bee populations.

Bird houses and bat houses can also be put on the sides of buildings.

Sports can be played in indoor arenas, whether small for children or full sized for adult athletics.

The glass used in windows can collect solar energy. All other energy needed will come from the most effective sources for the local climate.

This city was inspired by the images of Chernobyl and its rapid recovery over the last 35 years.

Having nature between buildings is a great use of space. And while Chernobyl itself is not fit for a human population, the imagery can be used in other places.

The city was also was inspired by the in-air walkways connecting buildings found commonly in East Asia and parts of Canada.

This is a commission made at the Dokomi last week.

Mechanical penguin is still a fun concept! This design has smaller solar panels on the back, and bigger ones in the wings/fins. Like this, it can easily collect energy while sliding on its belly, or while swimming close enough to the surface. The pattern of the markings is inspired by an African penguin.

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Das hier war eine Auftragszeichnung von der Dokomi, letzte Woche.

Mr Trash Wheel is a solar-powered garbage collector

Batch.works founder and CEO Julien Vaissieres explains that as an agile manufacturer working with 3D-printing, the company was set up to offer circular manufacturing “as a service model, where we provide hardware, software and material”, he says.

“We on-board clients from ideation through to delivery of the product, as well as the end-of-life stage for the product”, he says. By walking clients through the entire process, Batch.works is “making sure we take full responsibility for what we make”.

He says that Batch.works’ clients are currently spread across three different sectors: it is currently working with a large UK retailer on its fixtures and fittings, which he notes is “a very wasteful sector”; casing and packaging; and the third is accessories and consumer.

While its process follows a circular model – using consumer post-industrial waste for materials, working with short supply chains, manufacturing on-demand and taking back products for “re-manufacture”, Vaissieres explains that repairability becomes particularly important with consumer products.

For repairable headphones Kibu, which Batch.works produced with design studio Morrama, repairability is first encouraged with a simplification of the product design into fewer, simpler parts. But also important is to see “what type of scheme we can bring to life with this project to incentivise people to not put it in the bin” – from offering a subscription model to discount incentives, Vaissieres explains.

As a product designed for kids, there is opportunity to engender better understanding in the next generation, using design to help them “understand the objects they have in their life, and their life cycle”, he adds.

The regenerative structural engineer, published by the Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE), is a creative call by the authors for fundamental change that challenges engineers and the wider built environment industry to think and design differently - to do more good.

While detailing technical issues, the book is also clear, accessible and written with the non-expert in mind, using UK and global case studies to draw on a number of existing projects and practices. These all illustrate how a regenerative transition can be achieved in a way that feels plausible and deliverable.

Solarpunk Prosthetics

Dani Clode is part of a movement in alternative prosthetics, a form of assistive tech that bucks convention by making no attempt to blend in. Instead of making devices that mimic the appearance of a “normal” arm or leg, she and her fellow designers are creating fantastical prosthetics that might wriggle like a tentacle, light up, or even shoot glitter. Other unconventional prosthetics, like the blade legs favored by runners, are designed for specific tasks.

Designers believe that these devices can help prosthetics users wrest back control of their own image and feel more empowered, while simultaneously breaking down some of the stigma around disability and limb differences. 

But even as alternative prosthetics gain visibility, they are shadowed by an uncomfortable fact: prosthetics are still accessible only to a small percentage of those who could benefit from them. In a world in which many people who want a prosthetic can’t afford one, advocates are searching for a middle ground where accessibility, style, and substance overlap.