%0 Journal Article %A Pan, Wen %A Iturralde, Kepa %A Bock, Thomas %A Martinez, Roberto Garay %A Juez, Olga Macias %A Finocchiaro, Pietro %T A Conceptual Design of an Integrated Façade System to Reduce Embodied Energy in Residential Buildings %D 2020 * Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI) %X (1) The overall energy requirement of a building may be impacted by the building design, the selection of materials, the construction methods, and lifecycle management. To achieve an optimum energy-efficiency level when dealing with a new building or renovation project, it is important to improve the entire construction process as it is not enough to merely focus on the operational phase. If conventional construction practices do not evolve, compromise, or adapt to necessary changes, then it becomes challenging to deliver an ultimate low energy building. (2) This paper demonstrates the trend of off-site prefabrication and its production principles and the notions of open-building design and Design for X, as well as offering an overview of the development of automation in construction, which provides both insights and evaluations based on the context of the research. (3) Three European Union Horizon 2020 research projects were evaluated, and the outcome of the projects served as the backbone for the research and inspired the design of the proposed integrated façade system. Two design scenarios were proposed to demonstrate the potential improvements that could be achieved in a new build as well as in renovation projects. (4) The research lays a foundation for establishing a larger cross-disciplinary collaboration in the future. %K Integrated façade %K Prefabrication %K Energy requirement %K Construction automation doi 10.3390/su12145730 %U http://hdl.handle.net/11556/953 %~ GOEDOC, SUB GOETTINGEN