====Solarpunk Building Techniques====

=== Variety ===

Solarpunk buildings should be built to fit their environment – what’s practical, energy efficient, and even what materials are available will depend on where the scene is set. A solarpunk community set in the desert would have to look much different than one in a temperate rainforest, or a prairie.

This is a departure from our current society, with its wealth of fuel and concrete, which tends to drop the same cookie-cutter buildings into every climate and just burn more fuel to heat or cool them rather than adapt the design to its surroundings. 

=== Reuse ===

That said, as with all things there are exceptions to every generalization. Solarpunk doesn't generally take a clean slate approach to worldbuilding, and reuse of structures that already exist is almost always going to be more efficient than new construction. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embedded_emissions|The embodied carbon of buildings is estimated to count for 11% of global carbon emissions and 75% of a building's emissions over its entire lifecycle.]] Or to put it another way: The greenest building is the building that is already built.

https://metropolismag.com/projects/oslo-workplace-reused-materials-mad-arkitekter/


For a more in-depth look at specific materials, see: [[building_materials|solarpunk building materials]]

https://slrpnk.net/post/2963315

Light colored rooftops can   - though changing this on a mass scale may involve some problems with a [[https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/06/dark-roof-lobby-white-reflective-roofs-laws-lobbying-urban-heat-islands/|well-entrenched lobby bordering on a conspiracy]]