Mapping Approaches in Sustainable Architecture: From Eco-centric to Eco-technic

Sustainable architecture has developed rapidly since the environmental movements in the 1960s which has led to the current plethora of approaches. It is evident that there is an ongoing transformation within the field as new approaches emerge in response to social, environmental and technological developments. Approaches are often organized by scales based on the technological and philosophical underpinnings and it is this topic which will be the focus of this paper – mapping the commonalities and differences within a series of approaches to sustainable architecture, illuminating the complexity faced within the field. Within literature, there is an obvious captivation with the development of different approaches, however, what is often missing is what we can learn from this progression and how this diversity of approaches has affected how we practice sustainable architecture today. As Bergman [1] offers: “When we change how we ask the questions, the possibility of arriving at other answers emerges.” By dissecting and framing the plurality of approaches – changing how we so to speak ‘frame the question’ - one can begin to imagine a more holistic sustainable architecture.