solarpunk memes

The picture on the left is just an argument against lawns.

If the island were 100 times larger, the houses would take 1% of the land area, leaving 99%. The apartment complex would take up .04%, leaving 99.96%, which isn't much of an improvement. The proportions of our planet are much closer to my scenario than this made up island. That's a reason why we might not "prefer apartments in our own town."

There are good reasons you might want density, this just isn't one of them.

But then you have to live in an apartment…

The neighbors kids who live above you will stomp around at 2:00am.

The neighbors below you will complain when you make the slightest noise.

Because I lived in apartments for my entire adult life until maybe 2 or 3 years ago, and I can say most apartments suck because of the neighbors. Ya my neighbors across the street from me are awful and trashy but they are not directly above me or one wall away from me.

Renting sucks and relying on a landlord is awful. I bought a small house and keep my yard wild.

So um, why are the houses and nature mutually exclusive? I live in a suburban detached single family home, and my whole neighborhood is filled with trees, wildlife and even a tree lined creek that separates the back yards on my street from the back yards on the opposite side. You can't even see my actual yard from google maps because it's nearly entirely covered by tree canopy (at 6pm in summer my yard is 100% shaded). We have all sorts of wildlife including deer, foxes, owls, frogs, mallards, rabbits, squirrels, etc.

While I agree that we do need more housing options of all sorts, I don't for a second agree that nature and suburban housing are mutually exclusive. We just need to stop tearing down all the trees when we build, and plan better.

in both scenarios developers eventually buy up the entire island and fill it with either

What about something like that ?

8 houses in a row, built using a wood structure and straw bale wall for insulation (thermal AND phonic insulation) and clay plaster. So the construction material is storing CO2 rather than emitting tons of CO2 like concrete does.

It collects rainwater for the garden and has enough solar panels for the community and to contribute to the electrical consumption of the village around it.

It leaves a lot of space for land to develop a food forest, permaculture projects and leave space for biodiversity.

It depends also on the type of houses. It's not the same a cabin in the woods and a house with a garden.

Now imagine apartment buildings taking up 100% of the island and that's what you get under the current system.

Apartments are never built right. Always cheap out on sound proofing and appliances. Also fuck you if you have a dog

I'll go with 99 apartments and one house on the other side so I can be as far from them as possible.

I've lived in an apartment and I just can't do it. I hated every day in it.

Logic here is broken because we don't make these decisions anyway. A developer will instead put 30 apartment buildings while chopping down anything that gets in the way, then charge more for rent than you'd be charged for the mortgage on the house. There's also the fact that this picture assumes every family on the left pic doesn't give a fuck about free scaping, preserving trees, or planting new ones? Idk, whole thing is jacked.

What not many people are touching on:

In 2, the owner of the building likely owns the rest of the land as well as the apartment. You are a slave to the owner as he owns the island and your "beautiful view" will either be absolutely not developed at all so it is difficult to use as a park or a source of food without explicit consent from your ruler. No community gardens without tons of power tripping and infighting of course either.

In 2, the owner of the apartment and land can and will bulldoze the entire forest and completely pave it over if there is the slightest hint that he can make more money that way, then jack up your rent for the privelage of living in a hellhole. Conservation of nature my ass. The building owner has a 99% chance about not giving a shit about conserving the rest. They will turn it into monoculture or cattle farming or a parking lot and stores. This post is literally landlord propaganda.

Edit: owns the apartment building, not apartment.

I just moved from an apartment to a house.

If the apartment had the same floor space and the city actually accommodated my hobbies (I need a large garage to work on cars and finish fixing a boat) then I would’ve gladly stayed.

However. Apartments above 60m² are rare and expensive, and all garages/industrial sites are unfavorable because you can put another bloc or supermarket in there. The cities became living hubs for corporate workers whose entire lives can be crammed into a 40 meter apartment and their only entertainment is a depression rectangle or a gaming console.

We could also all live in cells. Maybe even hook us up to VR so we dont even need to get out into nature. You could maybe even harvest energy, by keeping us in nutrient filled tubs while simulating a perfect world into our neural perception.

You see one apartment building. A property developer sees room for 100 apartment buildings.

You think the corporate apartment developer is going to let all that stay green? That many people in apartments, you need a few parking lots, shopping malls, corporate centers, and then some more apartments once the rent goes up.

If the apartments are no shoe boxes and have lavishly big (garden) balconies I'm all in. The space should be around 100-120 qm each with flexible drywall placement for individual footprints.

I love living in a walkable city but I envy a friend of mine a little bit, who exits his apartment into a market center with cafes, shops, supermarkets, barber, doctors etc.

Because FUCK living that close to other people. Humans fucking suck to be close to and I'd go fucking postal having to deal with that shit.

I hate my neighbors as it is and barely see them. If I could hear their shithead kids screaming and throwing themselves into the walls I'd burn down a city block.

The nicest thing about the second picture is how much free untamed land it leaves for me to find a spot to bury the body of my asshole upstairs neighbor.

Edit: I'm not a murderer... But only because I moved out.

The real crime is that fucking font. I'd rather just burn down the whole island.

What makes you think it would be just one apartment building instead of filling the island with apartment buildings?

First one. I've lived in condos and I will do anything to always live in a house now. It's the literal reason we sold a condo to buy a house.

Life has been much better ever since.