This guide has been created to highlight resources most commonly used by those studying the following aspects of housing: energy use, kitchen design, alternative housing, and residential management.
Getting started with academic research | Overview of housing | Recommended databases | Design databases
BuildingGreen includes online versions of GreenSpec, "Environmental Building News", a database of green products (product descriptions and articles about the products), and a database of more than 160 high-performance building case studies (all in HTML). This information is searchable and cross-referenced by CSI MasterFormat division, LEED credit, or green building topic. 1992-present.
AgeLine focuses exclusively on the population aged 50+ and issues of aging. It covers the literature of social gerontology and includes aging-related content from the health sciences, psychology, sociology, social work, economics, and public policy. This database indexes journals, books, book chapters, reports, dissertations, consumer guides, and educational videos. Some full text available as PDF and HTML. Publication coverage is from 1978-present, with selected coverage from 1966-1977.
ABI/Inform indexes citations, abstracts, and full text news articles, market and SWOT analyses, industry reports, country reports, downloadable data sets, dissertations, business cases, working papers, annual reports from North American companies, and company profiles and histories. You can limit searches to peer-reviewed journals. Full text provided in HTML and PDF. 1971-present.
Updated continuously, Emporis provides data on architecture, construction, and real estate developments from all over the world. Search by company (consultancies, contractors, design firms, engineering firms, suppliers), building type, style, construction time frame (complete, under construction, approved, proposed, demolished, visionary, on hold), exact location and address, total height, structural height, number of floors and cubical space, date of construction project, structural system, materials, etc. Contains roughly 300,000 photos of buildings.
Factiva provides full-text news articles and business/industry information from newswires, newspapers, business and industry magazines, television and radio transcripts, financial reports, and photos from news services. Most content is HTML, though other formats are available for export. News sources 1979-present; financial data 1960s-present.