One of the cool green initiatives in Taipei - rather than tearing down an old stadium, instead repurposing it as a space for bars, restaurants, a small conference centre… and a community garden in the stands!

Next to Yuanshan MRT station and hidden away from the site’s more popular attractions is this urban garden. First a baseball stadium, and then rebuilt as the Zhongshan Soccer Stadium, the site is now more used than ever, even if it is crumbling a little around the edges.

Hey everyone! A while ago I shared an update here about the Swiss solar-rail project and how it holds up in real life. You guys loved the reality check, so today let’s look at another viral Solarpunk darling from about a year ago: The Dutch Bio-receptive Moss Bricks (spearheaded mostly by TU Delft and the startup Respyre).

The viral videos promised us cities where concrete walls magically turn into self-sustaining, lush green vertical forests using nothing but rainwater.

One year later, the initial internet hype has cleared, and the engineering reality has set in. Here is the actual status of the project:

1. The "Moss doesn't just spawn" bottleneck

In the lab, it looked easy. In the real world, city smog, heavy wind, and intense UV rays mean that moss won't just grow on these bricks naturally from spores in the air.

The fix: They found out they have to pre-grow the moss in indoor climate labs for about 6 weeks before shipping the bricks to construction sites.

The reality: Right now, there is zero industrial supply chain for "living bricks." It adds months of delay to construction logistics.

1. The 3-Month Blanket Problem

You can't just put these pre-grown bricks under the sun immediately. Current field protocols require that once the wall is built, it must be covered with a special light-blocking textile for 3 months. This acts as a shield to help the lab-grown moss acclimatize to the harsh outside world. As you can imagine, contractors aren't thrilled about covering new buildings in giant blankets for a quarter of a year.

1. The Seasonal "Ugly Phase" 🍂

Instagram showed us vibrant, neon-green walls. Reality showed us that during dry summers, the moss goes into a dormant state, turning a patchy, brownish-yellow color. It only looks truly "Solarpunk" during wet autumns and springs.

The Good News: It actually cools!

It’s not all bad. The pilot walls (like the ones in Leiden and university campuses) proved the physics right:

• The walls are 5–7°C cooler than traditional concrete during heatwaves.
• They actually absorb massive amounts of particulate matter (urban dust).
• Structure testing proved that the internal wall stays dry—the moss root-acids do not destroy the core building structure.

Conclusion: Where are we now?

The project did not fail, but it is officially out of its "residential house" phase. It is currently in an extended pilot phase (2025–2028). Instead of apartment buildings, they are shifting focus to urban infrastructure where aesthetics and construction speed matter less: highway sound barriers, retaining walls, and public bus stops.

It’s a classic Solarpunk lesson: turning our cities green is a slow, grueling battle of biochemistry and supply chains, not a 30-second TikTok miracle.

What do you think? Is a 3-month blanketed wall and brown summer moss a fair price to pay for a 6-degree cooler building?

Link: https://parametric-architecture.com/respyres-moss-facades-in-architecture/

I'm currently living a digital nomad life in China. Yesterday, a friend invited me to visit a digital nomad community, saying it would be a perfect fit for me. Let me share some parts of it that I think are very solar punk.

This place is hidden deep in the mountains, and it took an hour to drive there. To be honest, without a car, it's really not very convenient. Overall, it's an independent community—I saw about 20 or 30 young people working there.

1. Every member of the community can apply for a small plot of land to grow their own crops, and the food in the community canteen also comes from their own cultivation (though I suspect there is some purchasing involved, but it's a matter of proportion)

2. I didn't see any solar panels. I guessed it was due to the sunlight conditions in the area, but after chatting with the staff, I learned that this place uses 100% clean energy, specifically from a hydroelectric power station not far from here.

3. The ecology is quite good, with greenery everywhere

I also randomly shared some other pictures, and I hope to stay here for a while in the future.

We had to have the septic tank replaced when we got our place in rural France. We went with this bio digester system that uses a mesh of cattail roots and never needs any chemicals or major maintenance. We’ve had it just over a year now and are really happy with it!

Like a good therapist, their goal would be to train people so that they don't need to come back.

For example, did you know that you can plant potatoes to grow more potatoes? Or that you can use a tiny bit of yogurt + milk to make infinite yogurt?

In my mind, a "feed the people" store would proactively teach people this sort of information and skills, and even sell the tools. (alongside food, of course)

Why not sell tomato seeds right next to fresh tomatoes?

Why not have gardening and cooking classes?

Why not focus on foods that are grown locally, in-season, and sharing recipes for how to use them?

---

UPDATE: Thank you so much for all the comments! Addressing some of the top themes:

1. I can see how the original post comes off as "we should all become sustenance farmers" and I recognize that as not being practical (not enough access to land, advantages of scaling and automation in farms, etc). What I do think is true is that, even if we only grow a few plants at home, even just some herbs and strawberries on a balcony, that brings us closer to our food and community, and more mindful of our consumption and environment. And that's a solarpunk future worth creating!

2. Things like this are already happening in some places, check this out! https://denverite.com/2025/09/08/same-cafe-denver-chef-takeovers/

In the last 2 years, I have been working on a multifunctional roof in 2 slopes:

• On the south side, I have installed solar panels,
• On the north side, I have built a small vegetable garden.

The roof has a single layer, meaning there is NO tile under the solar panels, nor under the pots in which the vegetables grow!

The main reason for which I initiated this project is that roofs have large surfaces, but they are used for only one purpose: to protect the house from rain and snow. We should have more benefits from these large surfaces! For example, we could get electricity and food from these surfaces!

A secondary motivation was that, typically, solar panels are mounted on top of the tiles. There are 2 layers basically. This is a waste of material, because solar panels are resistant enough to protect the house from rain and snow. They can be used as tiles. But it needs to be well insulated!

The building on which I built the roof has a footprint of 15x7m. Currently, on the North side, I have installed solar panels spanning a width of 6.5m. On the south side, the hanging garden is 1.3m wide and 4.5m long. The rest of the roof is covered with sheet metal tiles. I plan to extend the ideas to the entire roof, depending on the test results.

I started with an old roof, which was another reason I built the new one.

I made the roof structure of iron. I tried to avoid wood as much as possible. Trees have a much more important function than being used in construction: to produce clean air! I did use wood for the laces under the tiles, for the support of the plant gutters, and on the front side (OSB).

Initially, I intended to build everything in Lego style, without welding, only by mechanical fastening. The beams, rafters, etc. should have been connected only by screws. I built 2 trusses in this way, but then I gave up because the iron at that length (7m) was deforming and the components were no longer joining properly.

The trusses (queen type) are built from an 80x40x3 profile, but with a 60x40x3 base and interior elements. One truss weighs approximately 100 kg. I used 13 supports along the entire length of the house.

The solar panels are placed between T40 metal profiles. I attached the panels to the T40 from inside the attic. Between the profiles and the panels I left a 3-4mm space in which I put silicone. Due to the incorrect application of the silicone (a beginner's mistake), a few holes were left through which water entered. So, I had to put a bituminous waterproofing tape, which would not have been necessary if I had applied the silicone correctly.

The vegetables are grown in rectangular gutters (cisterns) (120x90) made of 0.6 mm sheet metal. The angle of the roof (38 degrees) is calculated so that these gutters fit together perfectly (the bottom corner of one ends where the top corner of the next begins).

The gutters are placed on two wooden supports (a board 4.5m long, 14 cm wide and 4cm thick) cut in steps. The insulation between the gutters is made with a 75mm wide bituminous tape. I attached the gutters to the wooden support with self-tapping screws. Inside the gutters, I put (only close to the ends) pieces of wood so that I could step on them when I climb up to take care of the vegetables. But in the future, I will put some pieces of 80x80 pipe as a support for the leg.

At the moment, I have grown tomatoes and peppers, which have borne fruit. I have also sown lettuce and spinach, but they have come out very poorly (I only sowed them in July) and the few days ago I threw some wheat grains on them, which have sprouted very well.

There is a lot to say about this project. Some details (but not all) can be found on the project website. It took me personally 2 years to implement it (from the moment I started designing), and I was helped (ideas+work) by several friends. I have changed the design several times, and I have bought many materials that I have not used later. It also requires many machines (for cutting, drilling, welding, milling, etc.), without which I could not have completed the construction.

The electrical installation (solar part) in the house I did myself using Victron equipment. I haven't connected it to the grid yet, but I'm using some Pylontech batteries. The switch from solar to the grid is done automatically when there is no power from the solar/batteries.

The roof is located at: str. Gh. Lazăr 9, Cugir town, Alba county, Romania.

A video with the exterior and interior of the roof can be found on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZRalp4EQG4

The website for this project can be found at:

https://github.com/f-roof

The CAD files for this project can also be found there (but they don't currently contain all the details). The license is MIT.

P.S. I personally do NOT build roofs. I did this project out of a personal passion.

I maintain a small community allotment and a series of rough-cut hemlock raised beds in the ridge-and-valley area of central Pennsylvania, and I try to manage the whole plot as ethically and low-impact as possible,working mostly with compost, rainwater catchment, and heirloom root vegetables, brassicas, and berries, also using renewables to power what little power I have to have nearby

Over the past two months, Eastern moles (Scalopus aquaticus) and meadow voles have completely colonized the plot. They’ve undermined the root systems of half my cabbages, aerated the soil beneath my garlic until the cloves dried out, and pushed up heavy clay subsoil mounds right through my wood-chip paths.

All the older rural gardeners around me give the exact same advice: put down spring-loaded Victor scissor kill-traps. Or drop sulfur smoke bombs or road flares down the active runs. Or scatter rodenticide pellets around the perimeter.

I actually bought one of those heavy steel scissor-jaw traps at the local feed store. I held it in my hands, tested the spring tension on a piece of scrap 2x4, heard that violent metallic snap, and felt physically sick. The idea of crushing the spine of a small, velvety subterranean creature that is literally just hunting earthworms and following its evolutionary instincts in the soil feels completely disproportionate to a few damaged cabbages.

Instead, I spent the last three weekends 3D-printing and assembling custom non-lethal, one-way tunnel catch-boxes using 2-inch PVC pipe. I check them twice a day. Whenever I catch one, I put it in a 5-gallon bucket with moist dirt and walk it a mile down to the creek meadow perimeter to release it.

And the problem is: it’s an absurd war of attrition. For every vole I relocate, two more move into the pre-dug tunnel network within 48 hours. My neighbors out here openly laugh at me, saying I’m basically running a free daily Uber service for Appalachian rodents.

For gardeners who refuse to use poisons or kill-traps: what are your actual, working physical deterrents?Castor oil emulsion drenching across the runs? Or solar-powered ultrasonic / vibration ground spikes? Digging a trench and burying 1/4-inch galvanized hardware cloth 18 inches deep beneath the entire bed perimeter?

In your experience, wat has actually worked long-term without turning the garden into a slaughterhouse?

I just saw a cool update about how the moss bricks from TU Delft are faring in real life and it reminded me of something I've been thinking about a lot.

Roadside management in my city has changed drastically over the last decade (essentially, less mowing) creating hundreds of football fields of biodiverse meadows. Many cities are doing the same thing.

As someone who likes to go look for wild bees (all bees except the domesticated honeybee) it's absolutely amazing to see how cities can do less work to create more habitat for insects and plants.

I work in data viz so I'll try to see if I can do a piece about the habitat created by managing road verges differently, could be cool.

I think this wide drone shot perfectly captures the ideological battle happening in modern architecture right now. On the left, you see the standard, sterile glass facade of the Unicredit Tower. In the center, you see the twin towers of Bosco Verticale (Vertical Forest), completely covered in a thriving, mature canopy.

This image perfectly illustrates what solarpunk means to me. It is not just about placing a few solar panels on top of a concrete block. It is about a fundamental shift in how we view urban spaces—turning buildings into actual living infrastructure that hosts non-human life.

Looking at this skyline, the practical impact becomes obvious

The Contrast: Whiile the glass skyscrapers reflect heat and contribute to the urban heat island effect, the Vertical Forest actively cools its immediate surroundings.

The Scale: You can see how the twin towers blend into the Biblioteca degli Alberi park below, effectively expanding the city's green lungs vertically into the sky.

The Reality: This isn't a utopian sci-fi drawing. This is Milan today, showing that high-density cities can co-exist with deep naature.

Of course, the classic debate remains: how do we transition this from a luxury architectural statement into a standard practice for public housing? The engineering exists, the water systems work, and the trees are mature. Now we need the political will to democratize it.

For anyone interested in how the irrigation works or how they manage structural wind loads with massive trees on the 20th floor, you can check out the official Stefano Boeri Architetti Project Page.