Grassroots Dutch Movement Replaces Pavement With Green Space

A Dutch practice known as “tegelwippen” lets urban residents take climate mitigation into their own hands. As Klaus Sieg explains in a piece for Reasons to be Cheerful, “The aim is to unseal as many surfaces as possible, whether in private gardens, schoolyards, driveways, public squares or sidewalks, as in the Katendrechtse Lagendijk.”

Residents are seizing on the movement to organize neighborhood Tegelwippen events, in which people work on replacing impermeable surfaces with plants. Dutch cities support the efforts by, for example, offering a free service to take away pavers and stones removed through these projects.

The concept was developed by an Amsterdam creative agency, which first organized a Tegelwippen competition during Covid-19. Since then, the equivalent of roughly 235 soccer fields has been transformed from pavement to permeable, green space.

The phenomenon is starting to take hold in neighboring Germany. “There are now lawns, flower beds, park benches and even some boules courts on former parking lots, abandoned areas, dog waste grounds and traffic islands” in Düsseldorf, and Hamburg is also funding similar projects this year.