The future begins today The objective of the study, structure and scope of the document The issues of sustainable development in architectural design in the literature The issues of ecology and sustainable development in architectural design in the author's works Concepts for shaping the environment of man 1.1. Dichotomous concept of the environment of man 1.2. The concept of a sustainable cultural and natural environment 1.3. The conditions of sustainable development 1.3.1. Ecological conditions 1.3.2. Social conditions 1.3.3. Economic conditions 1.3.4. Ethical conditions 1.4. Challenges of the world versus the strategy of continuous and sustainable development of Poland Sustainable design as a space shaping paradigm in the 21st century 2.1. The paradigm as a contemporary research model 2.2. Sustainable design 2.3. The issues of high-tech in sustainable architecture 2.4. The issues of low-tech in sustainable architecture 2.5. Integration of architecture with the natural environment The architecture assessment problem 3.1. Methods evaluating the quality of architecture in sustainable design 3.2. Analysis of selected methods 3.2.1. The LEED method 3.2.2. The BREEAM method 3.2.3. The DGNB and HQE methods 3.2.4. The energy aspect in the idea of a passive house 3.2.5. Sustainable design under Polish conditions Aesthetic factors in assessing sustainable architecture. The architect's role 4.1. Problems of aesthetic assessment 4.2. Architecture and context - an aesthetic aspect 4.2.1. Creators about architecture and the cultural-natural context 4.2.2. Methods describing context quality in an aesthetic aspect 4.2.3. The problem of integrating an architectural object with the environment in the sustainable design process 4.3. The architect's role in sustainable design 4.3.1. Ethical and aesthetic values 4.3.2. Creation and coordination An attempt to define standards in sustainable design. The author's method 5.1. The structure of sustainable design 5.2. Assessment criteria 5.2.1. Energy efficiency 5.2.2. Pro-ecological land use 5.2.3. Usage comfort 5.2.4. Usage efficiency for materials and consumables 5.2.5. Efficiency of water and wastewater management 5.2.6. Local preferences and pro-ecological innovativeness of solutions 5.3. Selected study projects 5.4. Selected implemented projects A look into the future 6.1. Architecture ofthe future-attributes 6.2. Search for new spaces for architectural structures 6.3. Search for new materials for the construction of architectural objects 6.4. Emerging technologies in building construction 6.5. Human-oriented outer space The scoring of specific conditions in the analysed criteria