Hi everyone! A bit over a month ago I made a survey about Solarpunk and shared it here. Now, I finally present you the findings of the survey! I am adding a few pics here for a preview and if you are interested, go check the link where there is a full description of the findings!!
full findings: https://thesolarpunksurvey2024.carrd.co/
I am surprised how many people didn't get the "trees on buildings" reference...
That video effected how i think about modern solutions not necessarily how i picture a potantial solarpunk future. So I voted yes to the question.
I agree just slapping trees on buildings is not going to magically fix modern society's much deeper issues. I do still think having roof top gardens is something that could work for a much more advanced civilization with different construction methods and materials.
I dunno i think it has a place in the more imaginative side of solarpunk... a living building (like the ships and buildings from octavia butlers liliths brood series) could definetly support gardens. Or specially grown tree houses. Or hollowed out "mountains" with sunlight vents and an entire forest on the surface. Ooooo or maybe some floating islands where people live inside the verticle garden beds.
Modern concrete and steel based architecture is definetly not ready to have that level of greenery integrated into the building structures. One of the communes I lived at had a rooftop garden, & we had tons of issues with leaks and just the sheer weight of all that dirt and plant material on the structure.
I still love the idea though, lol just not in the modern era.
In Montréal we have several large scale rooftop greenhouses built on top of warehouses. I'm guessing the warehouse construction is probably overbuilt to support the weight, but there haven't been and major issues yet.
It might not be solarpunk, but it's solarpunk wearing a tie at it's day job to find it's dreams. And their tomatoes are fucking delicious.
@Nouveau_Burnswick @hazeebabee
I remember a manual for rooftop gardens from Montreal back in the 1970s.
There are lighter growing media than soil and, of course, hydroponics and aeroponics.
Years of links to urban and advanced agriculture developments at http://cityag.blogspot.com
Years of links to net zero energy building developments at http://zeronetenrg.blogspot.com
Both are also free listservs
I was specifically referring to Lufa Farm's commercial rooftop farms. Each farm varies slightly in construction, operation, strengths, and weaknesses.
But thanks for those listservs, great resources.
Super useful links, thanks for sharing :) it's so cool to see all the different ways people have approached the questions & all the different solutions they came up with.
Maybe I'm just a sucker for plants on buildings though lol
Agreed (thanks for the Links & I'm a sucker for plants on buildings too!). Rooftop gardens & More vertical farming!