The building is located on top of a 42,500-gallon cistern. The cistern is a circular space with a radius of 11’ and a height of 14’ surrounded by walls made of packed tires. An 8” deep concrete bond beam is poured on top of the last course of tires in order to tie the whole structure together.

The cistern space is topped by a 6” deep concrete slab supported by beams resting on the bond beam and concrete columns founded on the cistern floor. This slab constitutes the building slab which also extends outside the bond beam perimeter on the Southwest half of the building to create the patio slab.

The patio slab bears on backfilled earth retained by an additional rammed earth tire wall. It is located about 6’ above the ground level and is accessible by concrete stairs. The stairs are shaped with stepping tire courses bearing on backfilled earth retained by a rammed earth tire wall.

The primary structure of the building consists of concrete columns sitting all along the concrete bond beam and carrying a circular beam acting as a support for a central concrete dome.

Additional concrete columns sit on the tire wall located on the edge of the patio slab while others lean against an inclined truck tire retaining wall which surrounds the Northeast half of the building. These columns combined with the ones sitting on the bond beam constitute the supports for the beam framing of the concrete flat roof surrounding the dome.

The dome is a reinforced concrete shell which varies in thickness(6” on the bottom part and 4” of the top part) in order to save on concrete quantities. Glass-bricks (2 bottoms of glass bottles taped together) are tied in the reinforcement and act as skylights. The dome presents an inner radius of 13’ and creates a space with a maximum height of 17’.

All internal walls and partitions are non-structural and are mostly made with eco-bricks (plastic bottles filled with trash) which are bonded together with cob (earth + sand + straw) or a cement-based mortar.

Truck tire wall finishes are made of cob (earth + sand +straw) applied against the tire walls where nails have been added to increase the cob adherence. The cob fills in the voids between tires and creates a flat surface. It is covered by two layers of plaster: a form coat (cement + lime + coarse sand) and a final coat (cement + lime + fine sharp sand). Similar plasters are used for all the other walls.

The interior ceiling plasters are the same as the ones used on the walls while exterior ceiling plaster consists of cement-based mortar and sealant paint

Rainwater falling on the building is gathered on the plane part of the roof which is sloped towards the cistern collection area, located at the Northeast corner of the building. There, the rainwater collected is filtered before entering the cistern.