An ecological house, also known as the sustainable house, refers to a structure and process which are environmentally responsible. That is, an efficient resource management is incorporated throughout the life cycle of the building, including design, building, use and maintenance.

The goal of advancing eco cities often remains confined to political or technological issues. This book establishes a focus on architectural and infrastructural design approaches to sustainable urban planning. Starting out from a critical assessment of five prototypical eco cities of recent decades, the book identifies fields in which architectural and urban designers can use their creative skills and methods to achieve sustainable results on an urban scale. Sustainability is undergoing a shift of focus from quantitative measures toward designoriented, interactive interventions. The range of qualitative solutions in ecological design is discussed here in four topical sections on "Materialize", "Mobilize", "Simulate" and "Transform". For example, "Materialize" explores the potential of eco-design beyond the traditional palette of materials to show how spatial boundaries can be re-imagined as gradients of conditioned versus unconditioned space, working with climatic conditions rather than material boundaries to help generate new forms of urban architecture. Notes Includes index.