What kind of methods did people use to build passive houses / structures throughout history that can be applied for modern day building?

Tall towers that rose up over middle east desert towns weren't just for calling people to prayer.  They were meant for taking advantage of the higher speeds of the wind and for drawing the air up through the tube that is the tower.  Wind blows more quickly at higher elevations so thrusting a slender tube into the sky allowed medieval Arabic builders to provide suction at the tower's base.  That base was sometimes located underground right over a drinking well.  Further down in the well were tunnels that radiated away from the well, dug into it side walls, and traveled hundreds of feet to another hole outside of town.  This is where the hot air would be drawn down into the tunnels by the siphoning effect of the tower. As the air travels below the grade, sometimes along underground streams, it picks up moisture and "coolth".  The tower is usually an integral part of some large structure, a mosque or palace or civic building.  The cool, moist air is redirected throughout the building cooling down the thermally massive mud and stucco walls.  As the day heats up the redirected air gets warm, pulling the heat from the mud structure and rises through the building and then out through the tower.

Birmingham town hall in England (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham_Town_Hall)  has huge slabs of rock in the basement that cool at night. During the day the vents in the eves of the building let out the hot air produced by internal gains (buoyancy natural ventilation) and new air is drawn in via vents that pass the air first through basement. This outside air is cooled by the thermal mass (rocks) in the basement. Control of the cooling is done by limiting air out through the eaves. Unfortunately, the local council decided to renovate the surrounding area and paved over the inlet vents, destroying the system. Idiots. Thermal mass, natural ventilation and control of solar gains are 3 basic, but hugely effective ways to reduce energy requirements for any building. In the UK we have very aggressive green requirements for our buildings, and in London, you have to exceed this already tough requirement by an additional 20% reduction in carbon. Any building that has opened within the last few years, you can see the effect with double skins, solar shading and solar panels. For this reason, our building physics team (I work as an electrical designer) is our fastest growing team. It has taken 100s of years, but we are finally looking to use the techniques mastered by designers who didn't have the luxury of heat pumps and unlimited energy a flick of a switch away.

Native Americans built pit houses which were partly underground and circular, with a central fire pit. These houses have several features that help conserve energy. Here's a description with illustrations: http://www.greatdreams.com/native/nativehsg.htm#PIT Here's an image of a pit house: http://www.pc.gc.ca/apprendre-learn/prof/sub/tf-ft/images/pithousecolour.jpg

Earth-berming was very popular - building into hillsides like hobbits :-)   Here is an earth-bermed, ICF (newer technology), Passive solar house video tour.