This study presents a summary of green building research through a bibliometric approach. A total of 2980 articles published in 2000–2016 were reviewed and analyzed. The results indicated that green building research had been concentrated on the subject categories of engineering, environmental sciences & ecology, and construction & building technology, and the keywords ‘building envelope’ and ‘living wall’ obtained citation bursts in the recent years. Additionally, based on the cluster analysis and content analysis, the hot research topics were identified: green and cool roof, vertical greening systems, water efficiency, occupants’ comfort and satisfaction, financial benefits of green building, life cycle assessment and rating systems, green retrofit, green building project delivery, and information and communication technologies in green building. Knowledge gaps were detected in the areas of corporate social responsibility, the validation of real performance of green building, the ICT application in green building, as well as the safety and health risks in the construction process of green projects. Future research directions are recommended to fill these gaps and extend the body of green building research.