A review of the evolution of green residential architecture

Abstract Green residential architecture is reviewed considering the green movement that has taken place since the 1950's to 2010's describing and evaluating the most relevant housing projects that integrate an energy systems approach to reduced demand, renewable energy supply and energy storage. This review shows that green residential architecture has evolved significantly, has been named differently depending on the interests or concerns at the time, and has advanced at varying speeds depending on the technological, economic, environmental and political barriers and drivers at the time. Eighty-two green residential case studies are evaluated, focusing on the UK (30% of the case studies), but also Europe, the USA and worldwide. It is found that the most popular strategies for reduced energy demand are fabric first approach (89% of the case studies) and mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (64%) for renewable energy supply are solar thermal collectors (79%) and photovoltaic panels (58%), and for energy storage are hot water tanks (57%). In conclusion, 67% of the case studies have a whole energy systems-based approach with an average of 5.2 technologies per house.