Branca Crescent, Melide

There are only two ways to build a waterproof structure directly in water: either the classic double tank, or the single tank of the Drytech Tank technology.

The undergrounds of the Villa Branca Residence in Melide, on the banks of the Ceresio, were built with this system.

A luxurious crescent consisting of 16 apartments and 5 penthouses, with terraces, roof gardens, whirlpools and parking below the lake level.

In addition to allowing underwater installation, the Drytech tank ensured compliance with the internal volumes envisaged in the project, being a single waterproof concrete structure.

Drytech Engineering has defined the recipe for waterproof underwater concrete. As the casting matured, the construction details were waterproofed with the injection of DRYflex resin, effective despite the presence of water outside the new tanks.

Client: Chiancianesi & Longoni, Pregassona

Project: Archiconsult SA, Lugano on behalf of Marco Chiancianesi and Daniele Longoni with the architectural supervision of Source Project Manager SA

Structure: Ing. Alessio Casanova, Pazzallo

Company: PromEng SA, Lugano Besso

Drytech Tank: 2,900 m²

Giusti Wine Cellar, Nervesa

The Giusti Wine cellar in Nervesa della Battaglia designed by architect Armando Guizzo

The new Giusti Wine cellar in Nervesa della Battaglia was designed by architect Armando Guizzo to tell a story of ties with the territory and harmony with nature.

Ermenegildo Giusti is a convinced supporter of viticulture that respects the environment and people. Giusti wanted a winery that plastically expressed the values of sustainability and integration.

The cellar is two thirds underground, while the emerged part integrates with the territory, not only architecturally but actually: the undulating roof with its rows is not an aesthetic exercise, but rather an authentic wine-growing area, structured to support the weight of the agricultural vehicles and which produces bunches exactly like the surrounding rows.

Particular attention was paid to the roofing, with an in-depth study of the materials used for growing the vines. First of all, the natural soil that covered the area before the construction site was excavated was restored on the roof.

Below this original soil, several layers of different natural materials were laid, including expanded clay, which in addition to ensuring the growth of the vines, make an important contribution to the energy saving of the building.

The entire hypogeum was created with a single waterproof Drytech Tank.

Owner: Giusti Dal Col, Nervesa della Battaglia

Project: Architect Armando Guizzo, Montebelluna

Structure: Engineer Alessandro Pagnan, Montebelluna

Drytech Tank: 4,500 m2

Porta Nuova, Milan

The masterplan of Milano Porta Nuova was signed by the Kohn Pedersen Fox studio of London, while the executive plan is the work of the Arquitectonica IC of Miami and m²P Associati of Milan, for the commissioning of Hines Italia and Galotti SpA.

3,000 m² are destined for the Municipality of Milan to make it a cultural center. The four underground levels, made with the Drytech Tank waterproofing system, house parking spaces for 2,000 cars.

Drytech has built 43,730 m² of waterproof underground structures with the White Tank System, collaborating with the designers of Arup Italia in Milan and coordinating with the CMB company for the preparatory activities for waterproofing which, being parallel to those of the construction site, are in fact been removed from the work calendar.

Owner: Hines< Italia / Gallotti Spa

Project: Kohn Pedersen Fox, Londra / Arquitectonica IC, Miami / m²P Associati, Milano

Structure: Arup Italia, Milano

Works Management: Engineer Coppi, Modena

Construction: CO, VAR: Sarl, Reggio Emilia

Waterproofing: Drytech Italia, Como

Drytech Tank: 43’730 m²

Harbour parking, Loano

he new car park of Marina of Loano, one of the most interesting tourist ports in Mediterranean, has 400 parking spaces below sea level.

The new car park of Marina of Loano has 400 parking spaces below sea level.

Loano is one of the most interesting tourist ports in Italy and the Mediterranean for pleasure boating.

The expansion of the Marina involved a surface area of 358,000 m2 and involves the construction of over 1,200 berths, with the possibility of mooring boats up to 50 meters in length.

The port and city are served by a car park with 1000 parking spaces, of which 400 are underground. Or rather, submarines.

The underground car park of the Marina di Loano, created with the Drytech Tank System, drops 4 meters below sea level.

Structure: Mi.Pr.Av, Milan

Construction: Marcora SpA, Milan

Drytech Tank: 7,700 m²

Gym, Massagno

This is the story of a beautiful elementary school from the 1960s that wants to continue to be beautiful in the new millennium. Where beautiful means adequate to the needs of modern pedagogy.

With this objective, the project by the Durisch + Nolli and Giraudi Radczuweit Architetti studios proposed the integral maintenance of the body of the school designed sixty years ago by Arch. Finzi, updating it through a process of reorganization, adaptation and expansion.

The spaces have been rethought on the needs of contemporary teaching, which requires larger classrooms to allow for dynamic teaching, with flexible spaces divided into different areas of activity.

The school complex was then expanded and completed with the construction of a double gymnasium and a canteen for pupils and teachers.

The double gymnasium dug into the ground made it possible to maintain a proportionate volume with the school building.

The hypogeum consists of a 4,000 m² Drytech tank structure, impermeable to both water and radon.

The roof of the gymnasium, on which the new school canteen also stands, is a completely accessible space: a large public square also for the use of the population.

Among the different access routes to the level, the long staircase perfectly camouflaged in the architectural lines of the south facade stands out for its architectural quality.

The complex is presented as an open system connected with the city, with which it dialogues and interacts beyond the educational function.

The outdoor public spaces are in fact characterized by a great variety of themed places: from the birch park to the basketball court, from the lavender hanging planter to the long pool / fountain that borders the canteen square on one side.

But the school-city integration is confirmed by the extensive mending of the pedestrian connections that characterize the urban fabric of Massagno.

The area is permeable and inclusive and invites to be crossed because it offers direct and safe routes.

The school becomes a daily presence for the whole community.

Property: Comune di Massagno

Project:
Durisch + Nolli Architetti, Massagno / Giraudi Radczuweit Architetti, Lugano

Structure: Lurati Muttoni Partner, Mendrisio

Construction: Quadri SA, Cadempino

Drytech Tank: 4,000 m²

Sant’Ambrogio car park, Milan

In Piazza Sant’Ambrogio, in Milan, the construction company Borio Mangiarotti S.p.A. built a five-storey underground car park.

Drytech has designed a waterproofing system for the diaphragm, based on Injectable Waterstop Tapes.

By making the diaphragm waterproof directly, it was not necessary to create the lining wall, thus increasing both the internal volume to comply with the legal limits, and the surface, or the parking spaces available.

The Injectable Waterstop Tape for the joints between the partitions of the diaphragms is a Drytech patent that makes it possible to maintain the joint with ex-post injections of resin, performed in the event of any infiltrations.

The Drytech tape is laid with a special sheet piling which acts as a formwork of the diaphragm wall.

The diaphragm of the parking lot that flanks the Milanese basilica drops to a depth of 22.70 meters and the laying of a sheet pile of this size required special care by the company’s technicians, to ensure perfect alignment of the joints.

At the end of the casting, the sheet pile is extracted, equipped with a new belt and repositioned for the casting of the next septum.

The re-injectability of the DRYflex resin guarantees the possibility of carrying out maintenance on the diaphragm at any time, by intervening from inside the structure, without excavation or demolition and, above all, without having to close the car park.

Client: Comune di Milano

Structure: Ingegner Domenico Insigna, Milano

Construction: Borio Mangiarotti SpA, Milano

Drytech Tank:
Diaphragm: 5,600 m², h 22.70 m
Bed: 3,300 m²

AET, Montecarasso

The new administrative headquarters of AET in Monte Carasso (the Ticino Energy Company) produces more energy than it consumes.

On the one hand it boasts maximum energy efficiency in every technical component inside the building, on the other it produces energy entirely derived from renewable sources.

A positive energy balance, consistent with the corporate mission, which makes it the public building with the best energy performance in the Canton.

Designed by architects Lukas Meyer, Ira Piattini and Francesco Fallavollita, the new administrative headquarters of the Ticinese Electric Company appears impenetrable or transparent, simply matching the point of view.

The core of the building is in fact set back from the modular concrete grid facade. What a surprising optical effect from the outside translates into visual comfort on the inside: the offices are in fact flooded with mostly indirect natural light.

The site is lapped by the Ticino river and a stretch of water has been created between the existing building and the new one.

The underground structure was therefore built with the Drytech tank system: a waterproof construction of 1,190 m², which houses the technical rooms, changing rooms, warehouses and the AET general archive.

Client:
Azienda Elettrica Ticinese

Project: AArch. Lukas Meyer e Ira Piattini, Lugano + Fallavollita, Como

Structure: Tajana & Partner Ingegneria SA, Bellinzona / Spadea e Bondini, Lugano

Construction:
Bossi e Bersani SA, Bellinzona 

Drytech Tank: 1,190 m²

LAC, Lugano Art and Culture

Work of the Ticino architect Ivano Gianola, the project involves the construction of a public part – which houses the new cultural center of the city, with theater, concert hall, art museum, underground parking – and a private part dedicated to apartments and offices.

The complex integrates the façade of the historic Hotel Palace and develops around a large square which can in turn host shows and exhibitions.

The city also has 10,000 m² of pedestrian areas and a park behind the building.

Drytech designed and built the waterproofing of the underground structures of both bodies, for a total of 19,800 m² of Drytech Tank, built below the level of the lake.

Client: Città di Lugano

Project: Architect Ivano Gianola, Mendrisio

Structure: Eng. Sciarini, Vira Gambarogno

Construction: Cosma Swiss SA, Lugano

Photo: Studio Pagi, Lugano

Drytech Tank: 19’800 m²

Riga House, Comano

Designing the house for a family of farmers and the farmhouse for their guests within a farm, without interrupting the precious continuity of an alpine landscape made up of orchards and sloping meadows.

An ambitious request, to which Studio Stefania Saracino and Franco Tagliabue Architetti gave a radical response, setting the Casa Riga directly in the mountain just outside Comano Terme, in Trentino.

The structures in contact with the ground, bed and walls in contact with the ground, were built with the Drytech Tank System.

Project: Saracino Tagliabue Architects, Bolzano / Como

Structure: Ing. Giovanni Periotto, Trento

Construction: Damiani-Holz&Ko, Bressanone

Energy: Energytech, Bolzano

Photo: Davide Cornacchini, Venice

Drytech Tank: 725 m²

Nuvola Lavazza, Turin

The Lavazza Cloud designed by Cino Zucchi Architetti and the historic buildings recovered by Cino Zucchi himself together with Picco Architetti, are an example of architecture that dialogues with the neighborhood, with time and with the environment.

Over time, the area affected by the intervention has hosted the activities of the Alta Italia Electric Company, Sip and finally Enel.

A historic production site surrounded by a boundary wall.

The large block was opened and transformed into a pedestrian square overlooked by all the spaces, both newly built – the new Lavazza business center – and recovered.

A place that becomes an integral part of both the road system and the life of the neighborhood, with the large square-garden and its premises and with the underground public parking.

The environment helped shape the height of the building, which varies on different sides from six to two floors, depending on the solar orientation and the surrounding buildings.

The metal pilasters and stringcourses form an external grid on the floor of the windows which, depending on the seasons and the same hours of the day, helps to shield or favor the penetration of sunlight.

The uninterrupted dialogue with the environment includes roofs covered by greenery, hanging gardens inserted between the offices and a sophisticated digital system that programs the environmental parameters – such as temperature and lighting – in relation to the times and methods in which the different spaces are used, so as to maximize living comfort and energy efficiency.

Ownership: Lavazza, Torino

Project:
Cino Zucchi Architetti, Milano
Picco Architetti, Torino

Structure: Ing Giorgio Piccarreta – AI Engineering, Torino

Construction: Colombo Costruzioni, Lecco

Drytech Tank: 12,590 m²