Inside the Imaginarium of a Solarpunk Architect

But since the 1950s, Luc (now 77 years old) has been designing for the future urban landscape based on his concept of “archiborescence,” blending organic and manufactured elements for homes, commercial buildings and even entire cities of tomorrow. Whether or not it was his intention, Schuiten’s work, and particularly his illustrative style, has influenced an entirely new art and media movement that encourages sci-fi culture to redirect its energy towards manifesting a more utopian vs dystopian planet. It’s an aesthetic that strays away from sharp corners and straight edges, which is a clear marker of human artificiality.”Schuiten imagines himself as a “gardener architect.” His career has been defined by combining this ancestral knowledge with cutting-edge technology and modern principles, like biomimicry, which explores how the form and functions of organic elements can inspire innovation and engineering. In Schuiten’s home city of Brussels, he promotes a return to the past, where concrete fades to streams and cobblestones to valleys.Luc has envisioned his “Cities of Tomorrow” based on urban centres around the world. If nature has a chance at winning back some territory in our cities for a more sustainable future, Schuiten’s life’s work and the solarpunk movement he anticipated may just be our shining light.