As numerous cities advance towards the reduction of carbon emissions and greenhouse gasses, there have been emergence of plans to mitigate energy production, waste and recycling, retrofitting of buildings, and so on and so forth. Many of the efforts taken consist of small scale remedies, applied to a scattershot of buildings, or need to clear large empty plots of land for ground zero. Considering the land- scarce and natural resource limited city of Singapore, the problem becomes accentuated and we are in the constant search of finding solutions to revamp the surrounding environment.

In the era of pressing climate change and innovation, indubitably, we need to search for ways to decarbonize our environment and the way we live- of which includes looking to the cities we live in. Decarbonisation is the process applied to the built infrastructure in order to reduce carbon emissions produced from the built environment and activities in the built environment. If we were to take the existing built environment as a resource, how would we use architectural design to reconstruct and add current infrastructure alongside the way we live in the city? Where would architecture stand in the decarbonisation of our urban fabric?

In a building-saturated and land-scarce context such as Singapore, this thesis aims to introduce a series of systems to improve the living conditions of the environment by decarbonisation, while maintaining the vitality of the urban core.

In breaking down the factors of change, this project looks at the two-fold of elements that have to evolve alongside urban reforestry- that is Building as well as Human.

The area of intervention chosen is Cheng Yan Court, a mixed use HDB residential and commercial building.