solarwitchkay

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Imagine walking along this beautiful garden path in your ecologically sustainable cob house, the fabulous Phoenix, AZ Earthship.

Made of cob, salvage, wood, and glass bottles.

Oh, I could definitely live here.

Kitchen. Look at that green-stained natural wood table!

A total dream home.

http://happyholiday21.com & http://frommoontomoon.blogspot.com

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Wonderful fairies by alart_draws 🍄🌿

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Growth stages of various mushrooms! from young spore to wisened, old granny fungi.

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Woodlands, Evening

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"SNAIL ON A STUMP" 8X10 ART PRINT by Maura O’Connor — purchase here

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a LONG friend

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Word on the water, London💙

👉 Bookshop

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Aesthetics for hard solarpunk

Hard science fiction refers to when works of fiction stay very faithful to our current understanding of science - the fewer artistic liberties the work takes with its worldbuilding, the “harder” it is

Now I don’t typically interact with the literary aspect of solarpunk, focusing more on the practical, real-world work that needs to be done to get there. But I thought I might use the knowledge I have to give something of a framework for people who want to make solarpunk art that’s more grounded in realism than aesthetic - hence, hard solarpunk

3D printing

(Pictured: A Cyborg Beast prosthetic hand; a 4D-printed wire made in one process at GIT; Relativity Space’s 3D printed Aeon rocket engine)

3D printing is a precise, automated manufacturing process that’s accessible even to small communities, resulting in decentralized production and thus independence from multinationals. Local, bespoke production also eliminates the waste produced by packaging and shipping, making it ideal for a solarpunk setting - and its utility will only increase as the technology continues to develop. 3D printed objects of any material tend to have a wood-grain-like quality due to the layering process, which could be incorporated into your art or writing

Modularity

(Pictured: A bar built to the OpenStructures grid by Jonathan Karsilo; modular electronics concept by Phonebloks; modular housing design by Finch Buildings)

Modular systems have a host of benefits: easy replacement of broken parts, reuse of versatile modules, customization, simple assembly and disassembly, compatibility and open collaboration wherever the standard is used, mass production of multi-use parts, etc. All this results in simplified production and use, more efficient use of resources, and reduced waste. Modularity is typified by reusable assembly techniques such as nuts/bolts or snap-together mechanisms and by standard square grids (at least on the inside). It may not be as pretty as stained glass and art deco, but it’s much more sustainable!

Upcycling/reuse

(Pictured: Pat Delaney’s MultiMachine, made largely of reused car parts; a DIY solar panel made of broken photovoltaic cells by mattfelice on Instructables; tomatoes growing in an upcycled plastic barrel by markt on growlust)

Recycling uses up energy and wastes materials, and of course landfilling isn’t an option, so whenever a broken, worn, or unneeded object can be modified and used again it should be. If modularity is adopted to a big enough extent, and if disposability culture is brutally and vengefully slaughtered, most reuse wouldn’t look much different from anything else - unless a part is broken to the extent that it can no longer fill its original purpose and must find a new one. In near-future settings, though, lots of parts from today’s society could be shown living new lives

Recycling

(Pictured: Stools made of aluminum cans using a mobile foundry by Studio Swine; several products made of recycled plastic using small-scale machines by Precious Plastic; homemade recycled paper by reondadomino on Instructables)

But when something is well and truly useless, its materials must be broken down and recycled. This probably wouldn’t look quite as clean as modern-day industrial recycling, though. Small-scale machines being used by communities dedicated to reducing as much waste as possible would probably throw similar-enough colors together to be melted, or use simpler techniques that give less-than-standard results. They’re still no less pretty, if you ask me

Low-tech alternatives

(Pictured: The SunSaluter, a gravity-powered solar tracker; a wind-powered knitting machine by Merel Karhof; a homemade solar greenhouse heater by the Rusted Garden)

Connecting a windmill to a dynamo only to have it run a motor, or a solar thermal generator to a turbine only to have it run a heater, is obviously wasteful. So is using a computer and a motor to do what a jug of water and a counterweight could do. Not only is energy lost at each interchange, but the wires, batteries, and other electrical components all use valuable resources that require lots of energy to mine, process, and ship. Solar cooking, heating, and lighting would be preferred when possible, and mechanical processes would often be run by windmills (possibly with human power as a backup) or water wheels. Not everything has to be high-tech!

Feel free to add other realistic solarpunk details!

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I keep forgetting that I have this blog, but i too this on a recent camping trip and I guess it's kind of adventurecore

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“Sun”

From the show ‘What May Be’ at Tectonic Space in Baltimore!

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✨

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POV: you’re sitting on a mossy boulder at the stream when you notice a struggling beetle float by.

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sometimes making tea is less about drinking it and more about desperately hoping to achieve the life of a ghibli character

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Just like the seed Everything wants to live 🌱

If you want to see more, there is more: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28040181