With the green building research rising in these years, the rational mode of human beings and nature in China traditional architecture, which contains rich experience about ecological design, should be re-examined. The green design strategies of neo-vernacular is also becoming more and more important so we have to pay real attention to. This article demonstrates an integrated ecosystem approach in a design process of a neo-vernacular architecture called Xijie in the hope of providing certain reference and help for similar study. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.