Imagine having flora and fauna living inside the bricks of your building! A snow-white style fantasy? Not according to the designers of ‘Brick Habitats’ – bricks that have a little pocket for plants to grow and birds to hang out in. While most of the other entries into our massive Reburbia competition to find bold, new solutions to fix up suburbia propose large-scale solutions for the re-organization of housing or land use, Brick Habitats by Chooi-leng Tan envisions a much subtler change to the suburban landscape. These built-in brick coves are like mini-condos that attract native wildlife back to the suburbs!
Tan imagined an easily-customizable system that would allow suburban residents to arrange their vertical garden so that it becomes functional and useful to every user. Top, middle, and bottom pieces are available to create containers of various sizes. Bowl-shaped bottoms allow rainwater to run-off to create bird baths, while pieces with a small cavities carved out allow for birds to build nests. A bottom with a cavity is fitted with a middle “filler” piece to create a container for ornamental plants or for herbs — a perfect way for anyone to start their own herb garden, right outside their window!
A system that is easy to understand and put together, Brick Habitats is an encouraging proposal that allows residents to take environmental change in their own hands by participating in suburban habitat restoration.
+ Brick Habitats
+ ReBurbia
revolution is aggregation of small but potent ideas like this; small is necessary for the perception that it’s do-able on an individual’s scale, and potent because of the potential for viral-growth.
[...] it turns out we were right – we had see them before but at the time, they were just a glimmer in designer Chooi-leng Tan’s eye (or computer, rather). The bricks have little pockets for greenery to flourish and also double as [...]