The operations of built environment-related sectors are often run on centralized organizational structures. This centralized approach could lead to operational challenges that restrict efficiency, hinder transparency, and misalign with the community’s interests. The emergence of decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) presents a promising avenue for addressing these issues by leveraging blockchain technology and decentralized governance models. This paper presents a review of DAO, examining its existing applications, limitations, and potential use cases in the built environment. Seven categories of DAO applications in the built environment were identified and discussed. The study also explores DAO’s fundamentals, including its governance characteristics, operational mechanism, limitations and technical implementation, and corresponding challenges. Finally, this study highlights three potential areas in the built environment for future DAO use cases. This article serves as an essential reference for future academics, professionals, and policy regulators interested in learning more about the integrations of DAO in the built environment.

建筑环境相关部门的运营通常在集中式组织结构上运行。这种集中式方法可能会导致运营挑战，从而限制效率、阻碍透明度并与社区利益不一致。去中心化自治组织 （DAO） 的出现为利用区块链技术和去中心化治理模型来解决这些问题提供了一条有前途的途径。本文对 DAO 进行了回顾，研究了其在构建环境中的现有应用、局限性和潜在用例。确定并讨论了建筑环境中的七类 DAO 应用程序。该研究还探讨了 DAO 的基本面，包括其治理特点、运行机制、局限性和技术实现，以及相应的挑战。最后，本研究强调了未来 DAO 用例的构建环境中的三个潜在领域。本文为有兴趣了解更多关于 DAO 在建筑环境中集成的未来学者、专业人士和政策监管机构提供了重要的参考。