Solarpunk Urbanism

I think these look great! It’s definitely possible to have elevated cities and this was a common solution for cities in flood-prone areas prior to modern flood-control infrastructure like dams and levees.

I would look to real world places for inspiration. Many seaside towns reserve the first floor for parking because of possible storm surges. Obviously parking isn’t really needed in a solarpunk city, I would think about uses for this space that can either survive or be easily moved in the case of flooding. Your ideas seem fine although the marketplace would have to be thoughtfully designed to make it portable.

My city of Sacramento historically was very flood prone (and arguably still is, if the levies fail). An interesting feature of our history is that the entire existing downtown was lifted up to reduce flooding risk—this included buildings, sidewalks, streets. Everything! Kind of amazing, really. This particular strategy does leave some issues—the space under many streets is hollow and basically unused, although maybe a creative use for it exists. It also poses challenges in planting trees and building in spaces above the tunnels since they were only designed for a specific load.

Older houses in Sacramento also often have an elevated first floor with external stairs which I find charming. Historically the first floor was used for carriages but today people either park there or store other items. So a similar strategy to what you have here, except the space is more enclosed. This works well here because the city is very flat, so even during floods there is little current. Areas with hilly topography or with coastal flooding need open space on the lower floor to allow moving water to pass under without damaging the structure.

I would also look into “sponge city” concepts with bioswales, rain gardens, etc. Another possible source of inspiration is the chinampas agricultural system in Mexico. This is an extremely productive agricultural system created by alternating deeper ditches/canals with elevated areas. This allows for more ecological diversity to grow different crops. While I don’t think it’s wise to convert existing swamps to this system due to their imperiled status, swamps aren’t particularly hospitable to have in our cities, so this could be another possible strategy to deal with seasonal flooding in existing settlements.

Climate-induced flooding is going to be a major challenge in the future and I think we’ve really only begun to reckon with this new reality.

In an open channel/lake situation like that, you probably want some sort of wave breakers in front of the houseboats. Otherwise a passing larger boat would cause a lot of hazard.

But I would find a scenario like this with a smaller channel and development on both sides to be more realistic. Maybe search for some examples from Bangkok, which already has quite a bit of what you imaging in that regard. Also their water-busses are way cooler 😎

Love the sketch and the picture. Us Germans call them "wimmelbilder" and they tend to be super colorful, high detail, picyures for kids (and adults) to stare at and find more and more stuff. The R site had a community dedicated to them that was pretty cool. Would love to see one here.

In my opinion, one of the strengths of your design is the contrast of old and new. The skatepark makes me think of Burnside in Portland

Something to consider water doesn't stop at the shore in a lot of soils. There is actually a lot of water moving underground, moving the foundation and such. You also have to contend with rising water levels.

What makes the most sense then would be a city built to transition between the types of houses shown here as the conditions change and grow.

As you say, the obvious answer is "don't build cities in swamps". Before designing anything concrete, you have to decide why you want to overcome that answer - Is it a harbor, like New Orleans or Amsterdam used to be? Is it a cultural heritage site, like New Orleans or Amsterdam now primarily are? Are there natural resources? Is it a hub for locals to access more specialized goods and services, like specialty medicine? Or is it there because people think it's cool and they have enough money to let it exist regardless of sense?

Whatever the answer, the form follows that function. Build everything on the principles that drive people to want to live there rather than anywhere else.

So why do you think solarpunk people would choose to build a city in a swamp? And what are the amenities that follow from that need?

If you are trying to preserve a historic town like New Orleans or Amsterdam despite floods and rising sea levels, then your goal is to defy natural change in order to keep things the same. The natural form for that function would be a massive dyke built around all that you want to preserve, so that everything looks just like you want, come hell or high water. (Lifting historic buildings is unfathomably expensive and would change the original feel, so it's less ideal).

This is not a solarpunk design because the function of preservation is not solarpunk. New Orleans and Amsterdam weren't built as a place for culture to arise, let alone to preserve some older culture. They were port towns, and they were built with practical purpose. Everything good there arose because working class people from diverse cultures decided to hang out and have fun together, and the same can be done everywhere. If we want to honor the meaning of New Orleans and Amsterdam culture, we let those cities sink into the ocean and focus on having lively third places for the working class in this day and age.

There are things we can bring with us or rebuild in the old style, but loss and adaptation are natural.

I think Helsinki once tried elevated walkways in an entire neighborhood unsuccessfully. People couldn't (be bothered to) find their way when limited to walkways. I can't find anything on the project, but it showed how design is extremely important. In a lot of ways, I find it more logical to keep the pedestrian zones open (remember r/desirepath?) and then route the vehicles around, over and under.

Anyway if you've ever been to a city with elevated walkways or any other kind of multiple levels, you'll probably find that people stick to whatever is considered ground level for pedestrian travel. Tokyo has plenty of those places and even with escalators, it just sucks to change level.

I've however seen a functional walkway in Osaka where most pedestrian traffic would be either above or under ground level, but I'm not really sure if it was because the ground level was under construction and wasn't accessible by foot at the time.

A few things. First of all the dolphins for the house boats need to be much taller. When you have flooding they have to be above the waterline to have the house boats not float about and so nobody rams them, which would be bad for the boat.

Amphibious public transport is not that great of a solution. Boats can be easily larger then a bus and with proper waterways, which a city would have. In terms of capacity a fairly small boat can easily carry as many passengers as a tram. They also are more efficent without wheels in water. Also you have a problem with doors and other parts which need to be opened often on a bus, since those nearly have to be under the waterline. That also is somewhat true for the ropeway. A ferry connection would be just as fast and can have the same capacity. So a ferry elevate rail interchange might be better.

I really like this concept! Does anyone know if something similar to this (or the second picture you showed) exists anywhere irl?

Hi! Oooh tihs is so cool thanks for playing with this idea with me! Here are some random thoughts, both related to your drawing and not:

-swamps tend to be really shallow, which is why we have the boatcars

-here's some native swamp plants people can eat: wood sorrel, thistle, red clover, mulberry

-maybe a two-tier public transit system? We have streetcars, it'd be a shame to give them up. maybe there's parts of the city that are flooded, with houseboats/amphibious vehicles/big parades (the floats could actually float in the water, and instead of tractors they could be pulled by cute little tugboats. and I think the tugboats should have a little paddlewheel like our riverboats, just for fun), and then parts that are not, with buildings on land/streetcars/walking parades on roads.

-I definitely think emergency vehicles should be amphibious vehicles!

-important buildings like a city hospital should be tall and we NEED to have helipads on the roof, both for lifting patients in and for evacuation. So a full rooftop garden wouldn't be a good idea, but I bet a groundcover plant could work for those roofs, maybe one that soaks up a lot of water? Smaller buildings probably want slanted roofs so water doesn't pool. Not sure how to solarpunk slanted roofs--we do alright with solarpanels but they do take a beating.

-LOVE the gondola in the air! With our heat, definitely would need GOOD window coverings to block out sun and heat. In general, New Orleans should have smaller and fewer windows than in classic in solarpunk--some of our new office buildings are like all-window, you know that new style? And it sucks in the summer

-NO STAGNANT WATER this is mosquito territory and I hate them both personally and because they're invasive. Gotta keep ALL WATER moving so they don't breed

-this is random but based on your drawing, I'm really seeing the main city as being like above the ground/water (also a great way to keep people from getting hit by streetcars or falling into the water, easy to have rails on that if pedestrian walkways are more elevated than not.). Thinking about the Highline in New York--if people are walking, I don't wanna put on train on it, but there's such cool plants and seating areas on stuff on that. And I always felt so safe walking on the Highline because it was removed from the cars on the street. I wonder about how we'd drain it during rain--maybe the whole thing could be on a very slght slant that humans don't notice but then all the water drips off into the canal below

::: spoiler I want you to play the FOSS game Cataclysm Dark Days Ahead. You will learn a lot about this kind of thing based on that game's complexity. It is enormous is scope and unlike anything else you've ever played. The game devs do not have a totally solid grasp of fabrication trades in how some elements are used, but when it comes to the ideas of complex survivalists and resource utilization, the game will help you considerably.

First off, boating is a losing situation in the real world. Boats are super expensive and require a ton of maintenance constantly. You never own a boat; you own a money pit to maintain.

Similarly, a ropeway or tram requires massive industrial equipment to service and maintain. If the thing does not exist in poor areas, there is a reason. Working in heavy industry would teach you a lot about this. I've done it for a time. Every heavy bearing must be serviced by someone regularly. When that bearing is up high, has heavy loads, and is life critical, servicing and replacing it is a major operation. The economic/environmental footprint of things in this mechanism are massive as well. It really comes down to the metallurgy and precision purity requirements for safety at scale. These are massively wasteful operations because errors and variability cost lives.

If you live in an area with flowing water, at small scales, it is the cheapest and most powerful form of continuous mechanical power. If I do not have effective flowing water, I would be looking at gravity potential for power by making a water battery. Pump water up using excess solar or other forms and let it fall back down to generate or for other uses. Likewise, rainwater is a valuable resource.

Places in a major river flood delta typically have unbelievably good soil if it can be accessed. This is not ideal for modern industry scale farming, so you do not see this in the USA around New Orleans, but this is why the Nile was such a massive boon for ancient Egypt, and why the fertile crescent was a thing 10k years ago. Anyone trying to be much more self sufficient would be utilizing the potential for these soils. They would also likely have a small local foundry, forge, and kiln for bricks and pottery. Ways of utilizing the heat from these facilities would be interesting, or indeed the use of solar collectors for heat is interesting.

As the future approaches, you will likely find that everything in the present is oversimplified. The future is about finding a balance between technology, waste, and utilizing the excess. Eventually, one day, in a VERY distant future, biology is the ultimate technology. Almost everything we think of as advanced technology is possible with biology alone. However, accessing this level of technology will require a nearly complete understanding of all of science. This will happen one day, if we survive ourselves, but that is millennia away.

All industrial processes used presently have an unsustainable future within less than 100k years. The only way we can survive beyond this relatively short timeframe is if we manage to use biotechnology that can exist well within all of the elemental cycles. This will likely mean space based resource acquisition and processing as the only viable industrial potential. Indeed, I believe planets are not even the future of life and humanity in the very long term as planetary gravitational differentiation is an enormous tax on resource availability, but that is tangential here. My point is that, if you can picture the very distant future clearly, any point between now and then should fall along the line of progression that leads to that future. - Think big; and be a positive futurist.

needs more ducks and fishes

Needs around 20% more solar and more punk.

Perhaps a dam to keep any floods at bay