Rio de Janeiro is a very dense city in an exceptional geography situation between the sea, the mountains and some lakes. The population of six million inhabitants only in the municipality area lives mainly in apartments buildings. In some neighborhoods there are no empty sites for new constructions. Sustainable construction is a necessary step to reduce the consumption and the waste, and also the focus in the comfort conditions and social aspects (the dwellers). To improve the quality of living and achieve the environmental goals it is necessary to think how to upgrade the quality of existing buildings and blocks. In Rio de Janeiro each building has different owners and dwellers, and it will be important to work in a specific strategy to develop the building stock renovation. This thesis involves: apartment buildings in Rio de Janeiro (including the legislation), sustainable construction, renovation (refurbishment) of buildings and blocks, design recommendations according to the climatic conditions in Rio de Janeiro, and the verification of apartment building conditions (physical, environmental and social). One case study in a regular block of a very dense and famous neighborhood named Copacabana (96 percent of dwellers in this neighborhood live in apartments and 1/3 is older than 60 years old) was developed. Copacabana has almost all the buildings and blocks built during the 1940 and 1960 decades with common features like: concrete structure, buildings with 10 to 12 floors, and no distance between them.