Advanced Trombe Walls for Low-Carbon Buildings: A Systematic Review

Advanced Trombe walls are evolving from passive heat-storage elements into multifunctional façade systems that integrate latent storage, photovoltaic generation, controllable airflow, and intelligent operation. Yet evidence on the relative benefits, climatic suitability, and decarbonization credibility of these technologies remain fragmented. This systematic review applies a PRISMA-based protocol to 468 initially identified records and distinguishes an 86-report Trombe-wall-specific evidence base from contextual and enabling-technology sources that are used only to frame the broader decarbonization and methodological context. Four technology families are assessed through common dimensions of operating mechanisms, thermal comfort, energy performance, carbon mitigation, climate adaptability, maturity, and implementation complexity. PCM-integrated walls provide robust passive temperature stabilization when phase-change ranges match local diurnal cycles. PV-integrated systems offer direct grid-electricity substitution but introduce thermal-electrical and embodied-impact trade-offs. Ventilation control enables effective seasonal reversal, whereas smart walls provide the broadest adaptive potential but remain weakly validated beyond simulations and short-term prototypes. No universal technology ranking is therefore defensible: performance depends on climate, objectives, boundary conditions, and control capacity. Carbon claims are particularly uncertain because most studies infer emissions savings from operational energy while neglecting embodied impacts, durability, replacement, and end-of-life stages. Progress requires modular hybridization, standardized reporting, multi-year field validation, and integrated life-cycle carbon and cost assessment to establish resilient, low-carbon solutions. Within the quantitative audit, the only two numerical carbon results concern operational CO2 emissions; no audited entry demonstrates a verified whole-life carbon reduction.