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.

Reader support makes our work possible. Donate today to keep our site free. All donations TRIPLED!

Here’s what they’d look like in action, theoretically:

new-dutch-roofing-tile2-1024x682

Roel de Boer

Grist thanks its sponsors. Become one.

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.