Solarpunk and Agrihoods
The core of the solarpunk movement is high-tech meets green-life. It’s optimistic, community-oriented, deeply aesthetic, and inherently political. It isn’t just about surviving. It’s about thriving through collective resilience, open-source technology, and permaculture. This category overlaps with other IC types such as the following:
- Solarpunk shares the ethic of ecovillages, but typically values a modern aesthetic over the hobbit-hut.
- The “punk” element is a countercultural movement rebelling against climate doomerism, fossil-fuel monopolies, and late-stage capitalism. A solarpunk IC is a type of activist commune. Thru mutual aid and grid-independence, it is “building the new world in the shell of the old.”
- Like the artist collective & live/work space, solarpunk places a premium on craftsmanship and beauty, with a DIY culture. Solarpunk actually started as a speculative fiction and art movement.
- Because solarpunk champions decentralization, it strongly aligns with the IC type multi-house collectives. Like the Transition Towns movement, it’s focused on strategies for urban resilience thru cooperation across non-contiguous neighborhood homes.
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simple ways to go solarpunk
- Work with local officials to change policies. Lobby for rainwater collection rights, edible landscaping and vertical gardens in public spaces, and small-unit solar power collection, which is legal in Utah and under consideration in 30 states.
- If you don’t live in a gated neighborhood but like the idea, consider teaming up to create one out of your suburban or city block. Coordinate with your neighbors next door or to the back of you. If you have a good relationship and see an advantage to having gated play space and gardens, you could flip the whole fencing model. If you block off the front sidewalk and keep open the back and sides of your property, and neighbors are willing to do the same, you have created a gated community within which you collectively set your own rules. Children and pets can play safely with less supervision. This also would create a safer situation in the event of a natural disaster or other unrest that could spark criminal activity. You’ll need to check city and/or HOA regulations about fencing.
- Work with your local library or elementary school to add a toyshare or musical instrument share. Work with a local retailer to add a tool rental or recreation equipment rental.
Examples
Solar Punk Farms (Guerneville, Sonoma County, CA): Operating as an open climate hub and “environmental think-tank,” they blend high-tech land stewardship (soil remediation, advanced fire management) with art residencies, community workshops, and queer cultural events. Their stated goal is to use art, technology, and celebration to make the sustainability movement enticing.
Vereniging Aardehuis (Netherlands): This energy-neutral, smart-grid ecovillage composed of 23 self-built earthships and straw-bale homes uses advanced green architecture, localized renewable utility networks, and deep community permaculture, on the edge of a municipal area. It is high-tech, deeply aesthetic, and radically resource-efficient.
Living Energy Farm (Virginia, USA): LEF is a fully functional, fossil-fuel-free intentional community. What makes them uniquely solarpunk is their rejection of standard, massive AC chemical battery banks (which rely on corporate mining). Instead, they pioneered Daylight Drive DC microgrids using simple, durable solar setups to power heavy industrial tools, agricultural processing, and domestic appliances directly from the sun in real-time. They share this open-source technology globally to prove that a high-functioning, sustainable life is affordable.
Consultants for Solarpunk
Cmatch can connect you with consultants who have deep experience in projects and living environments that thrive on close, sustained cooperation. These professionals are experts at guiding others through the unique opportunities and challenges of communal living.
The consultants listed below have subscribed to be featured on this page. For even more consultants with interest and expertise in this type of community, visit the consultants page linked in the header.
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Members Interested in Solarpunk
ICmatch can connect you with communitarians who have similar interests and values. The members listed below have subscribed to be featured on this page. For even more members with interest in this type of community, visit the Match for Free page linked in the header.
Resources
Templates
Emergency timeshare contract: An example of a contract created for an intentional community adjacent to a metropolitan area. It offers disaster relief temporary shelter as a contracted prepaid service (AirD&D?).
Related Reading
- Breakdown is an opportunity: discusses seismic shifts in the economic and institutional landscape
- Civilization’s discontents and cultural evolution: explains how business-as-usual is a failing strategy
Self-sufficiancy and sustainability page: Find additional relevant resources here.
photos by Hanna Lazar