This project embarks on an alternative reality that is imagined to rethink our relationship with nature. If the representation of the climate crisis heavily relies on data that intrinsically does not entail a visual agency, it is also a crisis of representation. This project seeks to transcend the abstraction and complexity of the discourse revolving around the earth´s future by creating a narrative that grounds itself in the imaginary. Speculative fictions are experiments to think the consequences of emerging environmental and technological conditions. As such, the following pages offer a glimpse into a detailed scenario that does not attempt to clairvoyant the future, but contemplate and address urgent concerns in the way we care and design our planet.

Cities are constructed with extractive, finite resources that put enormous pressure on global climatic conditions. The building and construction sector is responsible for 36 percent of the global energy demand and 37 percent of the carbon dioxide emissions worldwide. With the prospect of massive urbanization, the built environment will fundamentally contribute to a spike in global carbon dioxide emissions. This paper investigates an alternative: It researches the potential of turning cities into carbon sinks with emphasis on the reduction of embodied carbon dioxide emissions of cross-laminated timber. Localizing the supply chain and bridging the gap between urban planning and timber production allows the investigation of synergies between the forest and the city. This research tackles the dilemma of accelerated urbanization while decreasing C02 emissions in a research-by-design approach with a city development project as a case-study. The proposed transition from the commodification of timber to the holistic benefits of trees results in an integrative design of ecologic processes and urban dynamics. This paper suggests a framework to offset the embodied carbon dioxide emissions of cross-laminated timber by transcending the nature city dichotomy.