Italy

Hydroelectric power plant, Casale Monferrato

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The new hydroelectric plant of Casale Monferrato

Building for water can sometimes mean having to build underwater too. The new Casale Monferrato hydroelectric power plant was built below the left bank of the Po, and the river also completely flooded the construction site during the 18 months in which the work was carried out.

The natural flooding in the floodplain area where the construction site was opened did not represent a problem for the Drytech Tank, because the construction characteristics and materials of the system cannot be altered by the presence of water, not even during construction.

The same DRYflex resin, which is injected into the construction details to seal them, is effective in the presence of water, even under pressure.

Built by Allara SpA of Casale Monferrato, the system consists of a mobile weir in the riverbed, an intake structure upstream of the weir from which the diversion canal begins which conveys the water to the central building which houses the groups of energy production and, downstream of this, the return channel into the riverbed.
The work is completed by two access ladders – one on each bank – for the ichthyofauna and the ramp for the passage of canoes.

The mobile barrier crosspiece, made up of a tubular structure in water-inflatable rubberized fabric, guarantees the diversion of the water flow to the lateral intake work of the left bank.

When the water level upstream reaches the maximum authorized level, the crossbar is depressed under the pressure of the water that overcomes it, avoiding flooding.

With its 200 meters of longitudinal development, it is the largest flexible dam in the world built with this technology.

The production plant hosts four turbines that generate an average power of approximately 3000 kW, for an annual production of 21 GWh.

Access to the turbine room is guaranteed by an underground tunnel connected to an entrance hatch. The tunnel is also a full Drytech Tank (waterproof floor, walls and slab), connected to the main body by a movement joint which has been waterproofed with DRYset injectable Waterstop Tape.

Owner: Idropana, Turin

Technical direction: STA Engineering, Pinerolo

Structure: Eng. Gianluca Odetto – SERTECH, Loranzè

Construction: Allara SpA, Casale Monferrato

Drytech Tank: 1,200 m2

The snow factory, Carosello of Livigno

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Drytech has built the new 5,600 m³ water tank, which will feed the cannons for artificial snow Close to the Carosello 3000 station in Livigno.

Close to the Carosello 3000 station in Livigno, Drytech has built the new 5,600 m³ water tank, which will feed the cannons for artificial snow.

The work, built in 5 months with a 2’175 m² Drytech Tank, is completely underground to have no impact on the Alpine panorama.

The practicality of the construction of the Drytech Tank makes the construction of these structures faster.

Time is a decisive factor in any construction site, but it becomes even more important for applications conditioned by seasonality (the structure had to be ready in time for the opening of the ski season) and with a climate that reduces the useful building time to a few months.

Drytech Engineering has formulated a waterproof concrete suitable for environmental conditions, based on the characteristics of the aggregates present in the plant chosen by the Edil Dona company in Valdisotto, Sondrio.

The acrylic resin DRYflex, which waterproofs the details by pressure, is certified for use in structures in contact with drinking water, so it is safe for the environment and therefore perfectly suitable for use in a tank that feeds the guns of snow.

One of the main acceleration factors on the construction site is the control of shrinkage cracking.
In fact, the Drytech tank allows you to make continuous castings (the bed was cast in a single solution) because the cracks are induced by the Cracking Elements, which can also act as disposable formwork.

Client: Carosello 3000, Livigno

Project: Studio Associato DMP, Livigno

Structure: Ing. Piergiacomo Giuppani, Sondrio

Construction: EDIL DONA, Valdisotto

Drytech Tank: 2,175 m²

Olympic swimming pool, Livigno

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Federal Olympic Center of Livigno

One thousand eight hundred and sixteen and 50 meters. Added to the hyper-training altitude of Livigno are the 50 precious meters of the “Federica Pellegrini Swimming Area”: the new Olympic swimming pool, built by TMG of Berbenno di Valtellina.

The new swimming pool has 12 competition model starting blocks (6 on each side), with 5-position track start platforms. With particular attention to the swimmer’s well-being and the environmental impact, the water is disinfected with a hypochlorite (with low chlorate content), produced on site with electrolytic salt transformation technology, which among other things allows the reduction of chlorination waste products.

The safety of the structure is also at levels of absolute excellence. The pool is in fact equipped with the Angel Eye system: 20 underwater cameras that record images of the swimmers in real time. The system is able to identify dangerous situations and, in the event of an alarm, sends a signal directly to the lifeguards’ smartwatch.

Drytech carried out the waterproofing of all the foundations of the building, all the perimeter walls and the recovery tanks, collaborating with the structural engineers right from the design phase. All these structures are in contact with the waters of the Federia stream, a tributary of Lake Gallo, whose flow varies depending on rainfall regimes and, above all, seasonal thawing phases.

Naturally the new Olympic pool of the Federica Pellegrini Swimming Area is open to the public. Inside the Aquagranda center you can also snorkel while admiring the fish on the seabed or travel to the interstellar stations of Mars, Moon and Venus. All this thanks to Divr: a new form of virtual reality that uses multisensory technology, amplified by immersion in water.

Ownership: Aquagranda, Livigno

Project: Architect Giovanni Colturi

Project collaborator: Geom. Demis Spiller

Structure: Eng. Fabio Fabiano, Varese / Engineer Marco Finazzi, Palazzolo Sull’Oglio / Eng. Fabio Sibaud, Como

Construction: TMG, Berbenno di Valtellina

Drytech Tank: 2,300 m2

Prefabricated underpass, Crema

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The railway underpass of Indipendenza street in Crema allows the passage of a road and a cycle path under the railway path.

The railway underpass of Indipendenza street in Crema allows the passage of a road and a cycle path under the railway path. The work was carried out without interrupting the overlying passage of the trains.

The Drytech Tank made it possible to prefabricate the monolith near the tracks and push it to its final location with an excavation that gradually replaced it for the ground supporting the railway line.

Once positioned in place, the monolith was waterproofed in its critical points (cracks and joints) with DRYflex expanding resin injections.

Made ex-post, the waterproofing did not risk being damaged during the launching operations.

The expansion joints f the railway underpass of Indipendenza street in Crema were prepared with DRYset injectable waterstop tapes.

Structure: Ing. Terzini, Crema

Construction: De Fabiani Spa, Cavenago d’Adda

Drytech Tank: 3’600 m²

Industrial Water Clarifier, Genoa

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An industrial clarifier

An industrial clarifier receives wastewater laden with metals, hydrocarbons and other pollutants.

It separates these elements from water through mechanical and chemical processes.

It then conveys the clarified water to the sewage systems and retains the residual sludge from the purification.

The walls of a clarifier are therefore exposed to a series of more or less aggressive agents. Conversely, they must not release any material into the water, much less polluting.

The DRYflex resin – used to seal joints, crossings and cracks in the Drytech Tank – has this dual ability to resist aggressive agents (starting with salinity) and even be compatible with use in drinking water facilities.

It is important to emphasize that the resin saturates joints, cracks and crossings for the entire thickness of the structure.

In the case of the Genoa clarifier, the barrier opposite the water has a variable thickness from 30 to 120 cm, coinciding precisely with that of the structure.

On the other hand, the characteristic single structure of the Drytech tank allows direct and non-invasive access for any maintenance interventions, which are simple and immediately verifiable.
Moreover, without particular limitations on the use of the system.

As part of the construction of the Genoa plant, Drytech Engineering collaborated with the structural engineer already in the design phase, proposing solutions for waterproofing the critical points of the structure. Engineering also contributed to the definition of the recipe for controlled shrinkage waterproof concrete, based on the characteristics of the plant chosen by the client.

Structure: Dr. Ing. Raffaele Ghitti, Darfo Boario Terme

Construction: SEMAT spa, Artogne

Drytech Tank: 700 m²

Enzo Ferrari Museum, Modena

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The Enzo Ferrari Museum in Modena is an engaging hymn to the myth of the car and the architectural manifesto of Jan Kaplicky: the Czech architect who founded the Future System in London.

The Mef can count on an area of ​​6’000 m², of which 4’400 are intended for exhibitions. The Museum is a car hood that emerges powerful from the ground. In Kaplicky’s style, the height is contained to establish a harmonious relationship with Ferrari’s birthplace, without however attenuating the evocative force of the new structure.

The exhibition spaces were developed in the basement, creating a waterproof structure of 5’850 m² with the Drytech Tank System.

Access to the museum is through an imposing curved glass wall, whose inclined plane is bisected by a series of fins that resemble the radiator of a custom-built car.

The exhibition spaces are accessed from the hall through two inclined platforms, going down to a depth of 5 meters

“Spaces defined by eight edges are not necessary, they are not mandatory”. One of Kaplicky’s famous phrases expresses well the spirit of the project, to whose sinuous lines the flexibility of the Drytech tank has been perfectly adapted.

The design phase saw an intense collaboration with Drytech Engineering to define the waterproofing solutions for the unprecedented construction details proposed by the particular shape of the basement.

Project: Future System, Londra

Structure: Politecnica, Modena

Works Management: Ingegner Coppi, Modena

Construction: CCC, Bologna – Ing. Ferrari, Modena, CSM, Modena

Drytech Tank: 5’850 m²

Grand Hôtel des Iles Borromées, Stresa

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La façade Art Nouveau du Grand Hôtel des Îles Borromées

In September 1918 a 19-year-old American soldier was wounded in the trenches and spent his convalescence in Stresa.

That boy is called Ernest Hemingway and, fascinated by the beauty of Lake Maggiore, he set part of his novel A Farewell to Arms – A Farewell to Arms, 1929 – there, making the Grand Hôtel des Iles Borromées famous throughout the world.

It is just one of the many connections with history that have built the legend of the great hotel, inaugurated in 1863.

With the opening of the Simplon railway tunnel, Stresa became a privileged destination for elite European tourism and, in 1919, was included in the sixth route of the Orient Express: the one which from London reaches Istanbul through Italy, via Milan, Venice and Trieste.

The Simplon Orient Express soon became the most successful route and getting off at Des Iles gave wealthy travelers their first evocative impact on the Bel Paese.

In over a century and a half of history, the Hôtel des Iles Borromeés has been able to adapt the concept of elegance to the evolution of times and tastes, without distorting its inimitable Art Nouveau style.

The new Spa was inaugurated in 2022, with wellness programs, saunas, Turkish baths, salt rooms, as well as indoor and outdoor swimming pools and hydromassage tubs, all made with the integral waterproofing of the Drytech Tank.

The speed of construction of the Drytech system allowed the Bellani company of Arona to remove the waterproofing activities from the work calendar, delivering the new structure in time for the opening of the grand season.

Drytech Engineering also designed the solution for a sensitive structural detail such as the passage between the internal and external swimming pool, subject to significant temperature variations depending on the season.

Project: Architect Statilio Ubiali, Verdellino

Structure: Eng. Marco Danioni, Dormelletto / Eng. Carlo Sammartini, Cassano Magnago

Testing: Architect Alberto Marzaro, Mercallo

Construction: Bellani, Arona

Drytech Tank: 2,850 m2

Drytech Ex-Post tank for oil plant, Italy

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A valve park sorts the crude oil unloaded from tankers to storage tanks.

In the specific case of the plant’s leaks in the ground, it was necessary and urgent to restore it, but without the possibility of interrupting its activity.

It was therefore decided to create an impermeable tank below the system of valves, which had been placed in contact with the ground.

With an almost archaeological approach, the ground beneath the plant was excavated by gradually inserting supports to the pipelines.

Then we proceeded to the casting of the drytech waterproof concrete slab and walls and, when the casting was ripe, the waterproofing injection of DRYflex resin in the programmed cracks, in the construction joints and in the crossings, including the pipe supports, which were left in place.

The intervention, designed and coordinated by Drytech Engineering, restored the system to safety and made it definitively accessible for maintenance.


Waterproofing: Drytech Italia, Como

Ex-post Drytech Tank: 4’000 m²

Corso Como Place, Milano

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Corso Como Place represents the new frontier of smart building: a building model that combines energy efficiency and environmental sustainability with a new experience for users and an evolved concept of living well-being.

What makes the project even more special is that it starts from the renovation of a building from the 1960s.

The Pirellino, as it was called by the Milanesi, stands in the center of the new Milan of Gae Aulenti Square, Corso Como, Eataly and the Feltrinelli Foundation & Microsoft House.

An iconic and very central place, which has stimulated a revolutionary project.

Corso Como Place is a complete redevelopment project, symbol of an architectural and urban planning path that creates beauty without destroying the existing one, starting from the enhancement of the Tower designed by Francesco Diomede, Giuseppe and Carlo Rusconi Clerici, converted to modernity in the sign of innovation.

At its foot stands a Podium that draws an open square directly connected to Corso Como and the Porta Nuova district.

The environmental sustainability of the buildings is guaranteed by the Nearly Zero Energy Building international standard.

The photovoltaic system chosen for the structures, the use of geothermal energy, which covers over 65% of the annual requirement, and the high-performance facades with automatic solar shading devices, allow very high energy performance and maximum reduction of CO2 emissions.

Furthermore, the choice of the Drytech Tank for the hypogeum ensured the impermeability of the underground structure not only to water, but also to radon.

A smartphone application allows everyone to customize their work environment, by intervening on lighting, temperature and shading.

Underground parking can be booked in real time based on the availability of free parking spaces and the IoT sensors (the Internet of Things) will monitor the noise level of the offices and the quality of the air, to ensure comfort and well-being for users.

With a role as a hub for green mobility paths and green areas, as well as a driving force for the redevelopment of the area, Corso Como Place represents a beautiful example of how architecture and construction technology can transfer a historic building into the future.

Asset & Development Management: COIMA, Milano

General Contractor: ICM, Vicenza

Project: PLP Architecture International, Londra

Structure: CEAS, Milano

Construction: ICM, Vicenza

Drytech Tank: 4,500 m²

Gioia Garden, Milan

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Architect Diego Fumagalli designed the Gioia Garden residences starting from the classic Milanese palace.

More than a dialogue, a hug. Architect Diego Fumagalli designed the Gioia Garden 1 and 2 residences starting from the stylistic features of the classic Milanese palace with which they border.

He created an architectural continuity made up of citations and references, which harmonizes the relationship between the two buildings, enhancing their formal differences.

Starting from this connection, the buildings in via Melchiorre Gioia 177/179 develop their own architectural identity, fitting perfectly into the context.

At the point of contact between the two buildings, the height of the volumes was respected and, in Gioia Garden 1 and 2, the string courses of the residential levels are barely mentioned, to conceal the slight differences in the height of the floors compared to the historic building.

Once continuity with the existing one has been established, the architecture of the new building unfolds all its character: with the articulation of the facade through the volumes of the terraces and the deep recesses of the winter gardens; with the hanging gardens dotting the building at different levels; with the three additional floors, progressively set back from the main facade.

The tallest volume itself contains a further reference, taking up the horizontal shutters that characterize nineteenth-century architecture.

Due to the presence of the aquifer and the proximity to the Naviglio della Martesana, all the underground structures, including garages, were built with a 2,753 m2 Drytech Tank.

Project: Architect Diego Fumagalli, Milan

Structure: STG engineering, Milan

Construction: Domus Service CO, Milan

Drytech Tank: 2,753 m2