An Automated Prefabricated Facade Layout Definition for Residential Building Renovation

The rising global energy demand has made it essential to reduce energy consumption in the residential building stock. Adding a new insulating envelope with Renewable Energy Sources (RESs) onto the existing buildings’ facade is one way to achieve zero energy consumption in residential buildings. The ENSNARE project aims to semi-automate this process by using prefabricated facade modules and developing new building data acquisition techniques. Prior to this research project, an analysis was carried out and several research gaps were identified. One of the obstacles to using prefabricated modules with RES is that the layout needs to be drawn and adjusted during different phases of the project. That is time-consuming. For this reason, this article describes two new solutions: (1) automated drafting of the optimized layout of prefabricated modules of the facade and the number of solar panels based on the existing residential building model, and (2) automated adjustment of the layout depending on the phase of the renovation project and the accuracy of the measurements in each step. The proposed semi-automated approach has the potential to significantly reduce the time used in drafting the layout of the prefabricated modules, which benefits the whole renovation process, contributing to a more sustainable future for the residential building stock.