In March 2013, Building Trust international, Habitat for Humanity & Karuna Cambodia announced the results of the Future of Sustainable Housing in Cambodia competition. The design competition asked for designs of a $3000 house that could withstand flooding and offer a safe and secure home for low income families in Cambodia. Open Embrace is one of the three winners of Building Trust international's Future of Sustainable Housing in Cambodia Competition:

Responding to the open ventilation needs of its tropical climate, the house offers a protected domestic realm that mantains a flexibility between interior & exterior and private & social. Between the columns, an enclosure is wrapped in bamboo panels, with one end opening to a raised courtyard space. The piers enact a tectonic embrace of the living quarters, shielding them from total exposure, while still allowing for open and communal interaction between. The act of raising the house to sustain the annual flood cycle creates a shaded space below for daily activities, commerce, and socializing. The materials of the house are familiar and largely produced locally, stimulating economies and connecting communities. They honor vernacular traditions and techniques, updating them into a modern Cambodian vision. Cambodia has a long and rich architectural legacy, and its domestic spaces should be no less a point of cultural pride than the grandest of Khmer Architecture.