Putting the Park in Parking Lot
Building better futures - Solarpunking our dystopian world, Part 1
Hello everyone! So sorry I’ve been neglecting y’all! There’s been a lot going on in my life, which you can hear more about in my audiojournal. ;)
But I’ve also been struggling to write due to my restlessness to create something more material than text. But I just had to come out and share this absolutely splendiferous vision of better futures!
Shout to Joan who posts all sorts of awesome solarpunk and otherwise cool art.
The other day I found this absolutely amazing image and channel!
This kind of stuff excites me soooooo much!! THIS is what I want to see more of and help people create.
We need to be able to visualize how our current world can be transitioned into a more sustainable, intimate, and enjoyable utopic future.
This wonderful piece of solarpunk art converts the wasteland that is a mall and its parking lot into a veritable garden! A permaculture park!
My own Solarpunk Software idea is all about being able to do these sorts of conversions. But that’s a whole nother convo.
Let’s really break this down!
Roughly from left to right you have:
Solar panels - Many malls and parking lots are already situated in areas where they have unblocked access to the sun. They’ve already cut down all the trees so may as well make use of it to generate energy. Putting them on top of bike storage garage is even better for creating a bit of e-bike infrastructure. Imagine having free charge stations at every parking lot!
Recycling chutes - It can be so hard to recycle in many places (at least here in the US) because of the lack of support for it. It’s hard to find affordable disposal services, hard to find recycle bins out in public, and hard to know if it all is actually being recycled. So what if you could have recycle bins leading directly to little processing facilities at every major strip mall around town? That would make it far more likely for people to actually go through the trouble… since it would be so convenient!
Small electric carts - Yes! For when bikes just can’t cut it or aren’t preferred, we can have little carts to get around. These are much better then cars because you don’t have to go into debt to have some transit options, they’re easier to fix, easier to charge/refuel, and take far less space, so their inclusion won’t dominate the landscape. Not to mention they’re super cute!
Wheelchair accessible - Beautiful! Modern society does try a bit to be accessible (thanks to those who fight for accessibility), but its still a struggle. Including that into the design not only ensures everyone can enjoy this garden/park, but it also can still be traversable to large groups of people at a time and other small vehicles. I really love how they depicted people in wheelchairs, pushing strollers, on walking canes, etc all throughout the area too!
Rooftop abortorium - This just sounds Cool. As. Fck! Human industry has and does cut down FAR too many trees… completely eviscerating many ecosystems, driving many species extinct, and wreaking the climate. We need to do whatever we can to repair and adapt to the damage. Not only will this help with reforestation, but it would be just so epic to be able to walk through a fun abortorium in a mall! This could make for awesome rooftop parties. Throw in some native wildlife and we could be like urban elves! :P
Urban orchard - This has much the same benefits as above, but is geared towards food production. Imagine being able to have fresh fruit that you helped grow and/or your parents/grandparents planted! And did you know that higher pollen count (and thus allergies) is due to botanical sexism (and climate change)?? For decades, if not centuries, people have been cutting down female trees and/or planting exclusively male trees in cities for aesthetics (they didn’t like the ‘litter’ that female trees produce… ie fruits and flowers). Thus male trees have to spread their pollen farther and more intensely to find female trees and procreate… So having fruiting trees in city centers will help reduce pollen!
Dovecotes - These are so awesome!! Rehouse the pigeons! Did you know that pigeons are domesticated? For Thousands years (that’s right!) they evolved along with us as the oldest known domesticated bird. They were used for companionship, sport, food, source of fertilizer, status, and more… until they weren’t. Over the last few centuries, they fell out of favor and were essentially discarded. Though they’re smart enough to adapt to our cities, and there are still wild species that were never domesticated, its still pretty fcked up that most of us view them as pests despite our rich, entwined history. So I really love that this vision of the future welcomes them back via some nice looking homes for them (but we could do with a lil more).
Community gardens (and compost bins) - Of course! Always have to create spaces where the community can come together to grow things together. Composting is like organic recycling, and community gardens bring all the benefits of garden but adds in the ability to socialize and work together in a completely voluntary way.
Co-op housing apartments - Hell yeah!! I’ve been looking to move into my own place as of writing and boy oh boy is it a freaking mess out here!! What makes it all worse is that there is NOT a lack of housing! The housing crisis has very little to do with housing supply, and almost everything to do with private parties, especially corporations, being downright greedy. They buy up multiple properties, do the bare minimum of ‘renovations’ or ‘development’ and rent out the place at ridiculous prices. No matter how you feel about whether or not people should be able to do this, at the very least, we should at least have far more options for home ownership, where its not just about private or public housing. Co-op housing allows for people who are living in the same area (such as an apartment) to own their own building together. Therefore, they can determine things like maintenance, renovations, and thus pricing. Whether we live in a post-capitalist system or not, we should have the ability to find and create co-op housing!!
Water catchment system - This is so clever!! Turning lamp poles into water catchers will help a lot with the problem of water potability that a lot of places have. People can then filter their water locally and check for any issues themselves more regularly. I also love the idea of these doubling as little homes for birds and stuff! I’d also like to see if we can turn off or tone down city lighting at night to reduce light pollution. I want to be able to see the cosmos at night without having to trek to increasingly rare dark zones.
Some other awesome things I noticed here were the bus transit implying a healthy mass transit solution, as well as the playground to give kids more options and freedom rather than just being indoctrinated into the idea of consumerism. There’s also a bee house, a lively pond, a free book stand, live music, and so much more!
Can’t forget to also point out the row of diverse, mixed use buildings!!
We have, from left to right: a gym, a local grocer, a (live) theater, a library, a new spot, a repair cafe, a soul food spot, and a thrift shop! That means you can go to this own spot for pretty much any need! This is pure genius that really SHOULD be a no-brainer in most of our cities. But due to the absolute brainrot urban planning that zoning has created (in America), most people can’t even imagine this.
What this means is that you don’t have to run around town to get things done, or try to cram everything into your house because you don’t have any/most of these close to you. On top of that, it also means jobs are more plentiful, accessible, and desirable because, once again, you don’t have to be locked into only one type of job being available in an area. This one block has more job types than most cities have in their entire ‘office park’ or ‘retail’ area.
On top of all that… literally, are actual apartments and other housing across the street! I know I already pointed it out, but I can’t stress enough how important it is that people can live right above these storefronts, making this an actual living community rather than just a retail or park area. Its a neighborhood in and of itself! THIS is the beauty of mixed-used zoning. Where you can have people live, work, and play all in the same area, thereby reducing the need to drive, reducing costs, and increasing socialization and community engagement. This is what we need more of!
This graphic is just so amazing!! This is why solarpunk is so fckn inspiring and motivating for me!!
I would love to see more examples of these! Plus local projects to enact this sort of thing in the real world. One day, I really want to create immersive 3D environments of these visualizations so people can really see what it would feel like to live like this, and thus want to fight more to make it happen!
Please share your thoughts! How does this image make you feel? What do you think of these elements they showed? Are you part of or privy to any real world projects to rehabilitate car-centric suburbia/urban sprawl?
Next time, I’ll check out another one of their posts that I really enjoyed!
Love this so much!! It’s getting me really inspired to talk to my hometown and start incorporating these ideas!