Almost two million paving stones have been 'flipped' so far this year in the Netherlands and around 10 million since the contest started. — AFP
Renske's garden at her home in The Hague, once paved over, has been transformed beyond recognition into a lush oasis in the barely three months since she joined a competition to make Dutch cities greener.
The Netherlands' Tegelwippen, or "tile-flipping" contest, encourages residents to help cities adapt to climate change by ripping out heat-absorbing concrete paving stones and plant trees in their gardens instead.
Just three of those stones remain as a reminder of what Renske's garden looked like before she swapped a concrete jungle for one dotted with flowers, aromatic plants and shrubs.
Plants and greenery are "better for everything" than the ubiquitous concrete blocks that cover much of the ground in built-up areas, said Renske, a 36-year-old law professor, who asked not to use her family name for privacy.
"It's less hot and the sound of the city doesn't bounce off the tiles," she said at her home near The Hague's city centre.
Old concrete paving stones are found all over the densely populated Netherlands, a quarter of which lies beneath sea level and is particularly vulnerable to climate change.
Swapping the stones out to plant green gardens "really helps to combat urban warming", said Eva Braaksma, who works at the agency that thought up the "tile-flipping" contest."Paving stones get very hot in the sun, and tiles do not absorb rainwater, so replacing them with plants cools the garden," she said.Besides, "greenery makes you happier".
"Together we are making the Netherlands a little greener," Braaksma said at an "action day" organised by the Amsterdam municipality in a suburb of the Dutch capital.
Around her, an army of volunteers was busy removing paving stones from the gardens of around 10 people who felt unable to rip them up themselves.
10 million stones
Almost two million paving stones have been "flipped" so far this year, according to a counter on the competition website – and around 10 million since the contest started.
It was dreamed up by the Frank Lee creative agency during the Covid-19 pandemic as a way to inject a bit of fun into greening the Netherlands' cities.
"We got the idea for a competition because we saw there were many tiled gardens in Dutch cities," Braaksma said.
"We thought it would be fun to make a competition out of it to encourage people to get involved," she added.
People taking part tell the competition how many paving stones they have removed from their gardens by uploading a picture to the website.
A collection is then organised so that they can be recycled, Braaksma said.
Having won several environmental awards, the Dutch competition is already catching on in neighbouring Belgium, with growing interest in Germany, Austria and France.
'A necessity'
In Amsterdam, 68-year-old Maida Paesch was watching a group of volunteers remove the concrete stones from the garden of the home she has lived in for the past 15 years.
In that time, rainwater would collect in a garden corner where it would stagnate because the paving prevented it from draining away.
"I hope this water will now be absorbed by the earth," the retired grandmother said, adding that she was already imagining her grandchildren playing in the garden and watering her plants.
Her neighbourhood in northern Amsterdam is particularly susceptible to being water-logged, said Daniel Goedbloed, a water management specialist appointed by the Amsterdam municipality.
"When it rains really hard, fully tiled places prevent the rain from being absorbed by the ground, flooding streets and gardens, while the ground itself dries out, even in rainy weather," he said.
Back in The Hague, Renske said her "concrete neighbourhood" was an "urban heat island on the map". She thinks all urban dwellers should trade their tiles for trees.
"It's a bit daunting at first, to dig up your garden completely," she said.
"But if we all do it, it can impact how the city warms – and it's a necessity." – AFP Relaxnews
