Background: Development of green building as future buildings has become a trend and played a significant role in changing the general direction of building development and creating an environment for sustainable development ’People-centric’ explores the relationship between people and building development. From the perspective of users, what are the influencing factors of green building? What is the relationship between independent variables? The authors link this issue to the development of green building and gaining a clearer understanding and direction. Methods: The authors applied grounded theory and intensity sampling to analyse the relationships of independent variables. Results: The findings of this study reveal the four core factors affecting how independent variables get to learn about green building, which are ‘personal perception elements’, ‘social elements’, ‘organisational elements’, and ‘architectural properties’. Conclusions: The authors also analysed the relationships between the independent variables to explore construction theory for helping green building better respond to people’s demand and pushing forward its development. In this case, the ’people-centric’ green building further improves the urban living environment.