Towards a new prospective basis for the design strategies of active façades

European energy directives are becoming more demanding with regards to performance standards and technologies such as Photovoltaic (PV) are used to optimise these standards. Thanks to the energy focus, this technology is becoming more efficient and affordable. However, despite this favourable context, Building Integrated Photovoltaic (BIPV) technology is not exploited to the best of its potential. Architects often justify the lack of PV use in their designs by the poor aesthetics of existing PV solutions, which have been hindering the development of BIPV. The on-going doctoral research presented in this paper aims to develop new strategic approaches for the design of active façades. Its ambition is to propose a new prospective basis for façade composition strategies, integrating architectural, constructive and technological issues. The paper describes the five key phases of the proposed methodology applied to residential buildings and three case studies. The final outcome of the research will provide designers with a complete and robust qualitative and quantitative multi-criteria evaluation system. This catalogue of active façade solutions will play the role of design guidelines, allowing the selection of the most appropriate design strategy with PV technology for the façade.