The house is “split” right down the middle so as to bring the scenery, the space, and therefore the Shan Shui (mountain and water) into the building. And a creek literally runs through the glass-floored entrance room. A courtyard, or outdoor living area, is enclosed by the mountains on one side and the house, with its two split halves, on the other. The line between the natural landscape and manmade architecture is thus blurred.

The split house is “convertible”: The angle between the two halves can be adjusted to fit the house into any type of hill site. According to the geographical condition of a particular locale, the split house can be transformed into a single house, a parallel house, a right angle house, a bar house, or back-to-back house. In other words, this particular split is only one of many states of this flexible architecture.

The split house is ecological: Its load bearing walls are made of ram earth with a partial wood frame. Ram earth construction is a time-honored building method in China. With minimum environmental impact, it builds a well-insulated wall that makes the house cool in the summer and warm in the winter. Meanwhile, the incorporation of tradition in this sort of project suggests an effort to create a contemporary Chinese house by building upon images of the past, but not by simply mimicking them.