As project advisor to rare sites — a charitable foundation adminstering a 900 acre conservation reserve on the Grand River — Associate Professor David Lieberman is reconstructing North House as a permanent installation and research laboratory to further develop alternative energy initiatives, materials testing and high performance building envelopes, and dynamic systems controls and user interface.

The project is a demonstration of the potential of sustainable design and an exploration of the needs of domesticity in addressing the needs of minimal dwelling in a contemporary context. It seeks to understand the relationships between building and landscape and to dissolve the boundaries between them. North House will become a centre for research for responsible practice in engineering and architecture. The building will compliment the environmental mandate of rare sites and provide opportunities for community outreach.
 
North House has been widely published internationally and has been the recipient of numerous awards including Ontario Association Award of Excellence 2010, the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada Award of Excellence 2011 for Innovative Practice, Architecture Magazine Research and Development for Responsive Envelope Design 2011, and  Eco-Structure Evergreen 2011 Special Recognition Award.
 
North House was first built as an entry to the United States Department of Energy 2009 Solar Decathlon in Washington DC by an interdisciplinary team of faculty and students from the University of Waterloo, Ryerson University, and Simon Fraser University led by principal investigators Geoffrey Thun and Kathy Velikov. David Lieberman was technical advisor to the project and coordinated the fabrication and build.