Ecological architecture is a known branch of sustainable practice & design, aiming to minimize the environmental impact of architecture using principles that respond to the local climate (Heinz Frick (2007). Ecological urbanism practices aim to imitate ecosystems in the city and integrate it as opposed to intrinsically supporting the ecological systems. Both fields use principles such as renewable resources, minimizing waste, energy consumption, and use of locally sourced materials. However, it is known that ecological design or “sustainable design” can be more prevalent in privileged contexts and seen as an attainable design style rather than an instinctive design approach designed for the community. Consequently, leaving vulnerable contexts behind in the discourse of its design & research, and raising a need to address the accessibility of vulnerable communities to ecological design and the resources necessary to implement and assess it. Hence, the aim of this thesis is to bridge the gap and provide a hybrid methodology, and tools to serve as a guideline for implementing ecological design in vulnerable contexts throughout different domains: Urban, socioeconomic and architectural. This is addressed by intersecting different definitions of vulnerability relating to low socio-economic status, environmental challenges, and with contextual parameters rooted in affinity, accessibility and risk to resources and the built environment, in order to provide a global overview of vulnerability, then contextualizing vulnerability in the case study of La Pau, Barcelona, to synthesize a vulnerability assessment tool, measures and strategies to reduce vulnerability as well as create a future framework for different vulnerable contexts throughout the world.