Critically Interrogating Eco‐Homes

Eco‐homes have only been researched in fragmented and partial ways, which fail to adequately examine their complexities and possibilities. Numerous myths about eco‐homes persist in the public imagination and policy support has been mixed with, in practice, little change to the construction of contemporary homes. The ecological and social potential of eco‐homes are being undermined by a technocratic focus, the capacity and behaviour of occupants, and a weakening of design as developments are scaled up. This intervention identifies five ways in which eco‐homes need to be more robustly interrogated to strengthen their potential, through their breadth and diversity, dynamic nature, socio‐material interdependencies, place, and understanding of their political economies. Crucially these interrogations need to be researched simultaneously to ensure that the full diversity of eco‐homes is understood through their multiple interdependencies, multi‐scalar practices and materialities.