對於這項願景，FCL有著更為深入的解釋：
Through Science
To achieve sustainability, science is essential. Science provides the basis for understanding how cities develop and interact with the environment at different scales. Cities are composed of physical stocks, resource flows, social institutions, and cultural catalysts which interactions generate a quantifiable 『metabolism』. The scientific focus of our research is to quantify such metabolisms, and understand how they might be best structured for the benefit of sustainable cities.
為了實現可持續性，科學是必不可少的。科學為理解城市如何在不同尺度上發展與環境相互作用提供了基礎。城市由物質存量、資源流動、社會制度和文化催化劑組成，這些因素相互作用產生可量化的「新陳代謝」。我們的研究的科學重點在於量化這些新陳代謝，並理解它們如何被最佳地構造以利於可持續城市。
/ The strait of Singapore as Urban Sea /
/ 新加坡海峽 /
By Design
A sustainable city must also be liveable. To achieve liveability, design is essential. Design is a collaborative process that combines analytical techniques, imaginative strategies and transdisciplinary knowledge to generate new ideas and bring them to fruition. Design skills bring often conflicting technical, economic, social, and cultural demands (such as environmental sustainability, profit, comfort, convenience, identity, security, satisfaction, and desire) into innovative and harmonious relationships.
一個可持續的城市也必須是可居住的。為了實現可居住性，設計是必不可少的。設計是一個將分析技術、富有想像力的策略和跨學科的知識相結合以產生新想法並加以實現的協作過程。設計技能常常將相互衝突的技術、經濟、社會和文化需求（如環境可持續性、效益、舒適性、便利性、保護性、安全性、滿意和願望）帶入創新和諧關係中。
/ Splitting the raw material at AFCL Singapore /
/ 在AFCL分拆原材料 /
In Place
Science and design are effective only if they serve places and the lives that are lived in them. Places result from common processes (growth and decline; competition and co-operation; ebb and flow of capital, people, goods and ideas; and climate change) and differentiating factors (geography, culture, language, and history). Our research addresses diverse lived places, from compact cities with high population densities to extended cities with a mosaic of urban and rural land uses.
科學和設計只有服務於地方和生活環境，才有效。地點產生於共同的過程（增長與衰退；競爭與合作；資本、人員、商品和思想的消長與流動；以及氣候變化）和差異因素（地理、文化、語言和歷史）。我們的研究針對的是不同的居住地，從人口密度高的緊湊城市到城市和農村土地使用鑲嵌的擴展城市。