grow.CORQUE

Fot the designCork competition the following concept was developed together with student Manuel Otagui of the Design Academy.

The standard Dutch pavement tile is a 30x30 stone tile. This type of tile is being used for most streets in the majority of Dutch cities. This has a high impact on the way the regular Dutch streets look like. The standardisation of these tiles lead to boring streets, and provide no inspiration. Therefore, to break this standardisation the same type of pavement tile is constructed of cork.

Next to this, there is a high demand of more green in cities, both from policy makers and the citizens themselves. As a starting point for this discussion and development, the grow.CORQUE have holes in the surface and flower bulbs and seeds inside. This way flowers will grow out of the pavement, providing small-scale green elements in the city.

Not only do people want more green elements in their living environment, people also want to change their environment according to their taste. For this project, the fact that people use the border of the pavement connected to their homes was the third element for this project. By removing the strip of tiles and replacing them with earth and flowers, people are more attached to their environment.

The grow.CORQUE has a natural look and feel and is fully recyclable. Because of the insulation qualities of cork the plants in the Corque.Tile will grow sooner, quicker and better. Next to this, by using cork granulate in combination with the earth in the core of the Corque.Tile, the vegetation will have an improved growth.