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Exotic Tile Emerges from the Everglades

Exotic Tile from Nick Gelpi Studio is an innovative and seductive material design addressing a serious environmental problem. The tile is made by transfroming wood from a highly invasive tree species in Florida’s Everglades National Park into a new type of wood-based concrete that has the potential to drastically improve building performance – while removing something harmful from the local environment.

The melaleuca quinquenervia, also known as the bark tea tree, was originally brought to Florida from Australia and planted into the Everglades in order to drain swampy areas. The tree has since become highly invasive, quadrupling in number and threatening the sensitive ecosystem of Everglades. The Exotic Tile could help to reverse some of this damage though as it is made by extracting these alien trees from the Everglades, breaking them into chips and then mineralizing them. The mineralized wood chips are then cast into concrete panels. And the result is impressive. Exotic Tile is not only 70% lighter than structural concrete, but additionally offers better sound absorbing and insulating properties.

The ingredients used in the mixture for Exotic Tile can be altered to create a variety of textures, surface qualities and porosities. The geometry of each tile can be concave or convex, highlighting the transformative nature of the material.

Exotic Tile will see its first application in 2015 with the renovation of an existing single family home in Miami Beach. The renovation works will include an extension of 50 square meters along with the re-cladding the house’s exterior with Exotic Tiles. The tiles are intended to act like a jacket on the house, functioning as a layer that breathes naturally and minimizes heat transfer between the house’s interior and exterior.

Find out more about this great project along with more of this interdisciplinary team’s work here.

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