The design study is for the establishment of an eco-friendly conservation, research and community centre in the form of a traditional Dayak longhouse. The building will be located in the village of Tembak in Indonesia and is part of a reforestation and orang-utan rehabilitation program.

The village of Tembak is located nearby some of the last primary forest in West-Kalimantan, on the island of Borneo. The Dayak people are used to living in harmony with the surrounding rainforest. However, many forests have been destroyed in recent decades, often associated with the construction establishment of oil palm plantations. What makes the village of Tembak unique is the uprising of the people against the destruction of their habitat. This took place by removing timber concessions from their forest, which lead to succeeding in stopping oil palm plantations from taking over their land and forest twice thus far.

A longhouse is a traditional way of living for the local Dayak people. It is a long building on poles and consists of multiple living units with a collective public space under one roof. Today, many of these longhouses are disappearing due to modernization of the Dayak culture, fire risks, but also because of a lack of sufficient building materials such as ironwood. The Tembak longhouse was demolished in the 70’s. Therefore, the creation of this new longhouse is an attempt to restore the traditional building methods and architecture in a modern way.

The longhouse is initially designed for a capacity of 64 people of a variety of users: volunteers, researchers, villagers, veterinarians, employees, eco-tourists and other visitors.
The aim of the longhouse with its production land is that it is self-sustainable in energy, water consumption and food production, with the following statements:
- Zero waste - No energy input - Max food output

By separating faecal matter from urine at the source in a so-called “urine diversion toilet,” a wider ecological system of waste disposal becomes possible. Solids can be composted for fertilizer and harvested for methane gas. Urine can be used to produce phosphorous and nitrogen and clean, drinkable water.