Decarbonizing Indonesia's New Capital City: Retrofitting the Design of Ministries Complex in IKN with Closed-loop System of Carbon Capture and Microalgae Secondary Skin

The construction of the new capital IKN has the challenge of achieving carbon neutrality. With the IKN area currently inhabited by around 144,000 people, it is estimated that the carbon produced reached 57,152 kg, while with a target population of 1.6 million people in 2024, the carbon produced will increase 11 times. Plans of IKN to reduce the carbon produced are diverse, ranging from reforestation, providing renewable energy to saving energy use, the efforts in architecture are minimal, including solar panels, vertical gardens and green spaces in buildings. Low-e glass material will be used massively. This raises the need for new innovations. By using existing design analysis research methods, secondary data collection methods through literature review and design methods, the authors create a design transformation scheme that take advantage of the potential that the original design and site of IKN have, namely the microalgae secondary skin closed-loop system which is an integration of two main technologies; open air carbon capturing, and photobioreactor with microalgae cultivation on the facade of buildings whose role is to process carbon dioxide, produce energy and by-products of oxygen, biomass and microalgae. Oxygen is released into the air, biomass is processed into renewable energy, while microalgae is harvested for food, medicine and cosmetics. Method of testing is conducted by using empirical data and data assumptions calculated through corresponding variables and comparison study. The study finds that by implementation, carbon in buildings will be reduced to almost three times the previous one. The low-e glass technology passively reduces carbon emissions by 1,999.3 CO2, while the innovation reduces carbon emissions actively and passively by 5,999.3 CO2. The innovation goes beyond the principle of carbon neutral and will assist IKN in realizing new potential advances for sustainability.