The project explores the Indigenous cross-border ethnicity of the Nanai. It investigates their material and cultural exchange methods based on the existing Sino-Russian border state, and looks to create a community built on Haru Island in the Amur Basin, with people as the border.

The project also addresses the risk of seasonal floods that occur in spring and summer, through an understanding of the existing local materials, architectural language, and construction methodology that respond directly to the environment already embedded within the Nanai's vernacular architecture. The development of the vernacular language embraces contemporary advances in construction and technology as well as changes to family structures and styles of living, whilst looking to reconstruct the national identity that is about to disappear in the context of political change.