[en] Energy needs and concerns in the construction industry are mainly focused on energy savings, characterized by research for new insulation products. Automotive industry, for example, has already overgrown this level of energy performance of their products and fuel economizing is not carried out only through new engine design but also through new aerodynamic lines of vehicles aimed at reducing air resistance. The construction product industry, which, in financial terms, is quite capable to address the issue of energy savings and which benefits from these inventions, has no possibility to interfere in the form of buildings and relations between them. This is something architects and urban planners deal with. This is the subject of this paper, with emphasis on what has been accomplished so far in this regard in the so called developed countries, in comparison with others, where the issues of energy saving are even more difficult to tackle. (author)