Roel de Boer is a Dutch product designer with a fondness for playing with ideas about sustainability. He dreamed up these tree houses that look like alien nests and a wood stove that burns individual spruce trunks. Inhabitat dug up another one of his ideas: roofing tiles that will turn the steep sloped roofs of old buildings into fancy new green roofs.
Here’s what they’d look like in action, theoretically:
On his website (via Google Translate), he says the idea is about “transforming a stone city to an overgrown city” and that the tiles are “stepping stones for wildlife in the city.” These flowerpot-like roof tiles are meant to perform many of the same services that flat green roofs do, like insulating buildings and minimizing stormwater runoff. Plus, they’re pretty.
A message from
Your support keeps our climate news free. All donations DOUBLED!
Grist is the only award-winning newsroom focused on exploring equitable solutions to climate change. It’s vital reporting made entirely possible by loyal readers like you.
At Grist, we don’t believe in paywalls. Instead, we rely on our readers to pitch in what they can so that we can continue bringing you our solution-based climate news. Donate today to keep our site free. All donations DOUBLED for a limited time.
