Re-imagining the future cities with Solarpunk
There’s a better way to build the future devoid of darkness
The works of sci-fi genre always depict the future urban sprawl as dark, repressive and devoid of natural habitat. Where the majority poor populace live in the underbellies while the top 1% revel in the high towers. In all fairness, it is hard to visualize a thriller full of gore and violence taking place in the backdrop of a beautiful abundant world.
Adding to the woes, the shape the present world seems to be taking — with authoritarian regimes, mass surveillance and climate crisis — it is hard to imagine a brighter future.
Call me a hopeless optimist but there is a better way to reimagine the future cities with an emphasis on sustainability, climate change and inequality.
And this is where Solarpunk comes in. The Solarpunk movement presents itself as a counter-dystopian perspective. It seeks to answer the question of how we can leap towards a sustainable society.
The term ‘Solarpunk’ originated from an anonymous blog post titled, “From Steampunk to Solarpunk” published in 2008.
Solarpunk as an art movement became popular in the 2010s, possibly as a reaction to the increasing awareness about climate crisis, an economy still recovering from 2008 financial crisis, rising inequality and spread of pro-democracy protests across the globe. The aesthetics are heavily influenced by Art Nouveau movement of the early 20th Century. Solarpunk is optimistic yet realistic in confronting problems plaguing the contemporary world.
Solarpunk stands in contrast to the dark aesthetics of cyberpunk — a world gone wrong due to technological abuse which lead to repressive regimes, oligarchy and inequality. On the other hand, Solarpunk represents a world that — through technological innovations — enables humanity to create a sustainable environment with the focus on cleanliness, abundance and equality.
Is Solarpunk an unachievable utopia? Though, the movement is fairly new and too optimistic given the current scenarios, but the rewards that society can reap through it if it becomes a reality are unparalleled. In a world of melting ice caps, rising sea levels, and wildfires, the solarpunk community is a vision of hope; a decentralized, self-sustainable city powered by renewable sources of energy.
There are a few real-world examples that reaffirm that this vision is totally achievable. The Singapore Airport is an example of what Solarpunk strives to achieve. The vertical farming is gaining momentum across the first world cities whereas countries like China and India are heavily investing in solar-powered future.
The sci-fi work till now has gone deep down in our psyche of building big mean machines and hostile architecture. But, science fiction, as the name suggests, is a window of imagination into a new future. So why is there a need to make the future dystopian?
It is likely that the world will never be perfect. There will always be societal conflicts due to misaligned incentives, wealth gap and inequality in various forms.
However, Solarpunk has a potential to be an ignition for activism. It gives us a sense that the world can comparatively become a better place and its ethos can inspire the generations to come.
