A working boombox, built in the shop to find out. Solarpunk Boombox is part of an ongoing series of speculative design fictions that are also fully working objects. Rather than answer the provocation in a rendering, this one gets answered in the shop — with a miter saw, a drill, and whatever was already on the shelf.
Ad hocism as method
The build takes the most familiar form in consumer electronics — the boombox — and rebuilds it from what was on hand: plywood offcuts for the body, a scrap dowel for the handle, a pair of salvaged Aiwa speakers, an amplifier, and a decommissioned Apple AirPort Express, wired together with whatever adapters made the connections work. Nothing here was bought new for the project; the aesthetic is the material logic made visible.
How it’s powered
A solar panel charges a power station built around a pair of 20-volt power-tool batteries. From there, the boombox runs off battery power — or plugs directly into a wall outlet with a standard extension cord. Same object, three ways to keep it running.
How it plays
The salvaged Apple AirPort Express gives it AirPlay streaming; there’s also a standard 1/8" aux jack for anything that wants to plug in directly.
In the shop
From sketch to finished object: sourcing salvaged speakers and offcut plywood, cutting and assembling the enclosure, then wiring it all together.
