Minimalist Housing as Environmental Intelligence: A Qualitative Cross-Case Study of Passive Environmental Potential

Minimalist architecture is widely discussed as an aesthetic strategy, yet how its spatial logic shapes environmentally responsive everyday dwelling remains under-theorised in building research. This study reframes minimalist residential space as environmental intelligence—an architectural capacity to structure environmental exchange and mediate sensory perception through spatial organisation. Using a qualitative comparative design, we synthesise relevant theory and analyse four canonical minimalist houses (Farnsworth House, House in a Plum Grove, Moliner House, and House N) through a five-principle analytical matrix (simplicity, openness, functionality, materiality, and balance). Across cases, we examine how spatial attributes shape sensory experience and indicate passive environmental potential (daylighting, ventilation potential, and thermal-buffering potential) while explicitly distinguishing inferred potential from empirically verified performance. Results show that minimalism is not a uniform style but a spectrum of spatial strategies: degrees of openness/enclosure, boundary layering, and material articulation recalibrate environmental awareness and comfort-related behaviours, suggesting pathways for design-led low-energy living with reduced technological dependence. The paper contributes an operational framework for linking spatial design decisions to sensory–environmental mediation and identifies transfer limits and future needs for simulation or in situ measurement in contemporary low-energy housing.