Green building is a way to reduce the impact of the building stock on the environment, society, and economy. Despite the significance of a systematic review for the upcoming project, few studies have been conducted. Studies within the eco-friendly construction scope have been boosted in the past few decades. The present review study intends to critically analyse the available literature on green buildings by identifying the prevalent research approaches and themes. Among these recurring issues are the definition and scope of green buildings, the quantification of green buildings’ advantages over conventional ones, and several green building production strategies. The study concludes that the available research focuses mainly on the environmental side of green buildings. In contrast, other crucial points of green building sustainability, such as social impacts, are often neglected. Future research objectives include the effects of climate on the effectiveness of green building assessment methods; verification of the actual performance of green buildings; specific demographic requirements; and future-proofing.

The COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns altered people’s perception of the relationship between indoor and outdoor living spaces, pushing the home balcony concept into new levels of ambiguity. Particularly in European contexts, people’s perspectives on its existence, functions, features, and borders are now unclear territory. Therefore, our study intends to assess the balcony design features and activities during pandemic times through the lens of selected key informants’ preferences in Lisbon and Warsaw, resorting to a post-occupancy evaluation of an online survey and a subsequent statistical analysis using a Mixed Model Analysis of Variance. Differences in cultural/social background, climate, and geography appear to be irrelevant during the pandemic, as both locations’ respondents show similar outcomes concerning balcony preferences. Activities previously practised elsewhere are now preferential to occur on balconies, such as having meals, gathering people, or reading and writing. The study concludes that the importance of home balconies increased during the pandemic, demanding an update of its design features to accommodate the newly rediscovered activities with direct implications on its users’ health and life quality.

This article provides a critical review of the current design and research challenges in contemporary timber architecture. Conducted from the perspective of a designer-researcher, the review focuses on the role of wood as a material at the intersection of environmental performance, cultural meaning, and spatial practice. The study adopts a conceptual, problem-oriented approach, eschewing the conventional systematic aggregation of existing data. The objective of this study is to identify, interpret and categorise the key issues that are shaping the evolving discourse on timber architecture. The analysis is based on peer-reviewed literature published between 2020 and 2025, sourced from the Scopus and Web of Science Core Collection databases. Fifteen thematic challenges have been identified and classified according to their recognition level in academic and design contexts. The subjects under discussion include well-established topics, such as life cycle assessment and carbon storage, as well as less commonly explored areas, such as symbolic durability, social acceptance, traceability, and the upcycling of low-grade wood. The review under consideration places significant emphasis on the importance of integrating technical, cultural, and perceptual dimensions when evaluating timber architecture. The article proposes an interpretive framework combining design thinking and transdisciplinary insights. This framework aims to bridge disciplinary gaps and provide a coherent structure for understanding the complexity of timber-related challenges. The framework under discussion here encourages a broader understanding of wood as not only a sustainable building material but also a vehicle for systemic transformation in architectural culture and practice. The study’s insights may support designers, educators, and policymakers in identifying strategic priorities for the development of future-proof timber-based design practices.

China promptly took the leading step to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, producing the first scientific guidelines assuming health above energy consumption and significantly changing HVAC/AHU operation. The research intended to fulfill the gap by measuring the impact of the guidelines on energy use intensity, CO₂ emissions, and energy operation costs related to workplaces. The guidelines are long-term sector and industry trends following occupants’ health and safety concerns, and today they are applied to nursing homes. The research extended the study to post-COVID-19 scenarios by crossing those settings with published reports on telework predictions. The methodology resorts to Building Energy Simulation software to assess the Chinese standard large office building on 8 climate zones and 17 subzones between pre- and post-COVID-19 scenarios under those guidelines. The outcomes suggest an upward trend in energy use intensity (11.70–12.46%), CO₂ emissions (11.13–11.76%), and costs (9.37–9.89%) for buildings located in “warm/mixed” to “subarctic” climates, especially in colder regions with high heating demands. On the other hand, the figures for “very hot” to “hot/warm” climates lower the energy use intensity (14.76–15.47%), CO₂ emissions (9%), and costs (9.64–9.77%).