Reuse and repurposing – Old buildings retrofitted to work better,
construction debris patchworked into new buildings, other stuff like
maybe parts of cars taken from their original context and repurposed into a new one. An existing building represents a lot of embodied carbon, the resources spent to extract/refine it’s materials, transport them, build it, maintain it, etc, and that extends to most existing machines, devices, infrastructure, etc.
Plants in practical, non-damaging locations, especially if they provide additional shelter, cooling, food etc
Variety – solarpunk buildings should be built to fit their environment – what’s practical, energy efficient, and even what materials are locally available will depend on where the scene is set. Our current society, with its wealth of fuel and concrete, tends to drop the same cookie-cutter building into every climate and just burn more fuel to heat or cool it rather than adapt the design to its surroundings. Solarpunk would have to look very different in the desert than in a temperate rainforest, or a prairie.
Communal spaces. Third places where people can exist without having to buy something. Parks, common areas, libraries of all kinds, cafeterias, speakers corners, playgrounds etc. solarpunk architecture should feel like it exists for its community.
Accessibility, whether that’s ramps, signage, a lack of curbs, abundant seating, or any of a thousand other considerations.
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A de-emphasis on car infrastructure. It’ll still need some vehicle access, for emergency services, heavy items transportation, and accessibility, but elements that make it more walkable, and even stuff like bike racks, are huge. Perhaps some mixed use buildings with shops or co-ops on the ground floors can help there too.
Art, murals and decorations. There's an expectation in our current society that we should treat our homes like a product we plan to sell. We should make them generic and easy to market, and there are standardized ways most stuff is ‘supposed’ to look. With the shift away from capitalism, we may see embellishment not for commercial value but as self expression and messaging. A solarpunk society might decorate everything from buildings to machines, in all kinds of styles. That might mean folk art with historical roots, like zapista murals, it might mean carved panels on cabinets, or etchings on tools, metal sculpture, or who knows what.
