Hi! Thanks for joining me for the next part of my solarpunk story, Harbour! If you remember the last installment, our townsfolk were hunkering down to wait out a Category 6 typhoon. This installment is about the time, immediately after the storm has passed.
It has more detail about building design as well as a little about the neighbors. I'm doing my world building here on Hive, it's a good place to get feedback from readers and also gives writers the security that their ideas are recorded on the blockchain.
You can find the previous piece here in the Scholar and Scribe community @ligayagardener/harbour-a-solarpunk-story-part
For those new to the genre, solarpunk is a relatively new category of speculative fiction. Unlike other genres with the -punk ending, solarpunk is a positive view of the possibilities our world could experience. It is futurism at it's most optimistic, utopian and thrutopian.
Recovery
We don’t see much of the storms from our house. We prefer to close the shutters and ride it out.
Houses here are designed to minimise storm damage even from 300 kph plus winds so we're as safe inside one as anywhere else. Our housing design is different to many styles of the past. They've been built to handle local conditions, even though they are changing all the time, we like to think that they'll protect us from the intensifying weather for another decade or so but we are always learning and adapting. Their core design is sound though, so, myself, I think they'll still be around in a century
Our houses are built in small groups, laid out like the scales on shark fins to streamline and focus the flow of the wind over the clusters so that turbulence damage is minimised. They are aerodynamically shaped to shed vortexes so that they are not affected by unstable low pressure zones on their downwind side when the wind blasts through during a storm. Part of this is achieved by a single, almost flat facet on the roof which is also aligned so that the inbuilt solar cells can maximise their efficiency by capturing the most Sun relative to their house’s location.
Homes are built sunken into the ground to minimise the amount of construction material needed as well as providing a stable temperature that is, during the hot weather, a few degrees cooler than the outside air and in the cooler seasons, can provide a pleasant night time temperature. The rock and soil dug out during building is crushed for use in the building printers where they are mixed with recycled plastic aggregate to provide better strength.
The stable temperature below ground also helps with the efficiency of the saltwater cells that are built into the sunken walls. These provide power for the home when it is isolated from the main grid and also contribute to the needs of the same grid.
The cell's designers also incorporated a, locally found, bioluminescent algae that lives in the water of the cells and provides a pleasing blue light in lower levels of buildings. It is closely related to a the Synechocystis microbe that outdoor equipment generate electricity from. Harbour biologists are always tinkering with it, trying to get both functions from the same organism.
An hour after the worst wind passed, our house AI informed us that the storm had passed, so we opened up the shutters and looked out through the diamond panel windows to see what damage had been done.
Immediately around the house is the expected litter of coconut fronds and other debris and further out, a medical service vehicle zoomed past, heading in the direction of the hospital.
I spent the morning inspecting the house’s weather seals to make sure that none had been breached and checked waste containers to make sure that they were empty. Once a storm is observed, all communal waste containers pump their contents to the big biodigesters. Fecal waste is one of the big problems for health post storm in cities around the world. It gets washed out of sewers and septic tanks in richer areas and off of streets and parks in areas where the population still needs to poop outside.
At this point, the town AI isn't communicating yet. Some of the towers are down while techs rebuild damaged parts but the local mesh network is sending low power signals between individuals.
I sent the kids to Centre to find out if any services, help or resources were needed. We could have called Centre but the kids need to let off some steam after being sealed inside for two days. They have plenty of education and entertainment but kids need to run and play outside as much as possible. All Harbour kids are outside kids, they love the ocean too, a necessity when you are surrounded with it and the closest other place is three days away by dirigible.
A security drone buzzed overhead, heading to the Enclave. We have ocean going pirates on all sides of Harbour and we also have the only deep water port in the area. Part of our trade deal with them was to allow them access to a walled part of the bay during bad weather. They are excellent at finding unusual tech, negotiating a deal was highly beneficial to us). Security drones check on their comings and goings and a shuttle service has been established for the exchange of goods. We are generous but cautious, these folks made their living from plunder and aren't adverse to violence, so we kept them out of the most populated parts of the islands.
We do have weapons, some powerful ones left over from the bad days of the collapse. Everyone has an emergency code that allows them to retrieve them in absolute disaster situations but these codes are only enabled in times of strife. At other times, the only weapon around is the razor wit of some of our more audacious townsfolk.
