Environmental pollution has left developing countries with enormous challenges and imminent development opportunities, and this project seeks to apply residual productivity to transforming the value of waste.

Rutopia describes the future of the slum Makoko by constructing a system that can unlock the value of rubbish and reset waste. Constructing a dialogue between the productive activities of the slums, the flood of rubbish, and the polluted water environment, the project attempts to establish a rubbish disposal hub in the Lagos lagoon area, solving the problem of rubbish from the nearby city and the lagoon and generating revenues, as well as attempting to alleviate the growing class conflict in the slum and the surrounding city.

The narrative of the urban system constructed by the project is based on the process of waste disposal, depicting the production and living activities in the waste disposal city in terms of the flow and transformation of waste. From a generic point of view, the project tries to activate the residual value of waste through sustainable means, avoiding harmful waste disposal methods such as landfills and providing a settlement system built around waste disposal.