Living Reef is an open and complete system based on the existing geography and resources. The first component is a modular artificial reef surrounding atolls and islands in order to reduce the effect of global warming by mimicking the effect of mangrove, reef and salted-marsh. The other deep-water infrastructures like solar-panel lily-pad, recycling or water-treatment platforms will be shared with surroundings islands. The submerged islands will be fully integrated to the eco-system.

Living reef is designed to accommodate the actual and future needs of the Kiribati. The design is based on plug-in principles. New modules can be added to the Reef as needed. If a settlement is growing, new floating houses can be plugged-in. If a fisherman-port or a hydroponics required by the inhabitants, it can be added, and so on.