Responding to the prevalence of demolition in rural areas this project proposes a strategy for recycling old buildings into a new primary school in Tongjiang county. The project brief required replacing an existing school building with a new building and expanded program. Our proposal for the demolition of the old building was to reuse the rubble as a growing medium and insulation on the green roof. In the meantime, traditional ‘green’ bricks no longer manufactured were collected from demolition sites of old houses in this historic region. These bricks were used as a large screen wall and ground paving for the school. The project demonstrated a way to recycle old material into a new prototype for a sustainable school building.