diff --git a/examples/COUPLE/simple/CMakeLists.txt b/examples/COUPLE/simple/CMakeLists.txt
index d83f8885b2..c5b6b96edd 100644
--- a/examples/COUPLE/simple/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/examples/COUPLE/simple/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -4,8 +4,10 @@ project(simple CXX)
 set(LAMMPS_SRC_DIRECTORY "" CACHE PATH "Path for lammps source")
 if(NOT LAMMPS_SRC_DIRECTORY STREQUAL "" AND EXISTS ${LAMMPS_SRC_DIRECTORY}/cmake/CMakeLists.txt)
   option(BUILD_LIB "Build LAMMPS library" ON)
-  execute_process(COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E create_symlink ${LAMMPS_SRC_DIRECTORY}/src ${LAMMPS_SRC_DIRECTORY}/src/lammps)
   add_subdirectory(${LAMMPS_SRC_DIRECTORY}/cmake lammps)
+  file(MAKE_DIRECTORY ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/includes)
+  execute_process(COMMAND ${CMAKE_COMMAND} -E create_symlink ${LAMMPS_SRC_DIRECTORY}/src ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/includes/lammps)
+  target_include_directories(lammps INTERFACE $<BUILD_INTERFACE:${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/includes>)
 else()
   find_package(LAMMPS REQUIRED)
 endif()