Consisting of three multi-unit rental buildings, this design was meant to be a testing ground for green material as was its predecessor a pioneer for modern rammed earth in China. The design centers around a planted vertical core that acts as a ‘green lung’. Each house floats above a rammed earth base, thus providing space for water treatment and offering views above the nearby levee. Each building is laid out identically, in a plan designed to offer multiple options for renting out the houses.

Wastewater is treated on site with as much reuse as possible. Computational fluid dynamics software was used to optimize the buildings for passive solar heating. Each building was designed to use different sustainable materials as a controlled experiment in weathering and chemical content.