Office retrofit study

This illustration marks the beginning of my long-term creative partnership with SciPhi Journal. The brief was ambitious: capture the entire philosophical essence of the "Solarpunk" movement within a single, definitive cover image.

To achieve this, I leaned heavily into the punk-element of the genre, the countercultural defiance that actively resists dominant corporate and capitalist models. The central symbols of this resistance are the towering corporate office buildings that dominate our modern cities. In a near, post-industrial future, we will inherit a massive surplus of these vacant, glass-and-steel monoliths.

Rather than allowing these structures to stand as isolated, monolithic boxes occupying precious urban space while sitting empty most of the time, the illustration shows the creative power of local communities reclaiming them. Through radical retrofitting and architectural hacking, communities break down the isolation of the urban fabric. They weave a quirky, complex network of interconnected layers, bridges, green spaces, workshops, and communal zones, transforming cold corporate property into a shared, multi-functional, living superstructure.

The outcome

Under construction

The final illustration