The search for an architecture that contributes to the current necessities of the environment and the humanity brings to light discussions that foster the revaluation of the relevant values to its formal conception. This study has the goal of investigating the relationship between the architectural form and the inclusion of the concept of sustainability in architecture. Through literature review and illustrations, the research reports a historical sequence of the transformations occurred from the modern industrial system, when the technological advance and the appearance of new materials brought to architectural framework an infinity of formal possibilities, passing through abstractionism, rationalism, organicism and critical regionalism, up to the sustainable architecture. The work intends to evaluate the possibility of a new formal register that integrates the environmental, socio-cultural, economic and technicalconstructive questions jointly with the idea of sustainable development using the context as the explorative element to shape the architectural form.