30


feature


urban design & landscape architecture


reimagining ownership of the public realm


Matthew Warner, Director at landscape and urbanism studio Layer, explores how the Dutch movement known as tile tipping could inspire a new approach to community stewardship in the UK’s public realm...


Across the Netherlands, communities are lifting paving slabs and replacing them with planting in a movement known as Tegelwippen, or ‘tile tipping’. What began as a simple response to climate change has become something much bigger. Residents, councils and government all play a part in creating greener streets, cooler neighbourhoods and more biodiverse places, one paving slab at a time.


Replacing hard surfaces with planting helps absorb rainfall, reduce overheating


and support biodiversity. But tile tipping’s real success lies elsewhere. It has changed the relationship between people and the places they live. Why has nothing similar taken hold in the UK? It’s tempting to answer with a familiar list of barriers: liability, highways legislation, adoption standards and risk. Those issues are real, but they’re only part of the story. The bigger question is one of ownership. Public space belongs – in principle, if not legally – to all of us, yet many


people feel they have little influence over it. Professionals regularly consult communities on proposals and invite comments on masterplans, but opportunities for communities to make small, everyday improvements are rare. If utility companies can dig up the public


highway to maintain infrastructure, should communities also have greater freedom to improve overlooked spaces? What could a British version look like? While it wouldn’t be appropriate to copy the Dutch model exactly, the underlying


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