Abstract: Recent research progress on the energy-based seismic design method for building structures is comprehensively reviewed. It is pointed out that the control of structural energy dissipation mechanism is the key to determine the dissipated energy distribution in structures and realize an energy-based seismic design. Reasonable energy dissipation mechanisms are studied and corresponding control methods are developed for steel braced frames, reinforced concrete frame structures and reinforced concrete frame-shear-wall structures, respectively. A framework for energy-based seismic design is proposed based on the control of energy dissipation mechanism, and the application of the proposed method is demonstrated for the three types of structures.