| Job site |
Restoration and structural strenghtening of Villa Manzoni |
| Year |
2013 |
| City |
Dogana |
| Area |
San Marino Europa Italia |
| Client |
Ente Cassa di Faetano |
| Designer |
Arch. Semprini Mirco, Eng. Marino Casagrande (Antao Progetti s.p.a.) |
| Site management |
Arch. Semprini Mirco |
| Building company |
Seats S.A.,Titano Spa and AhRCOS srl construction companies |
| Intervention fields |
Structural interventions with resins tissues and pultruded Structural interventions with lime based products Anchoring, injections and structural tying |
Villa Manzoni is situated in Dogana locality, at the entrance of the San Marino Republic. It represents one of the rare examples of nineteenth-century manor house in that agricultural area. It was built between '1800 and '1900, although the original settlement is dated back to seventeenth century. Villa Manzoni was the summer country residence of the Manzoni-Borghesi Counts, noble family of the village.
Result of a series of interventions made over a period of nearly 250 years during which have been aggregated and modified the original volumes, the building is organized on four levels: the main floor, elegant, once reserved to family and its guests; the ground floor, used as warehouse and cellar - essential in its finishes - the attic and the mezzanine, intended for servants or as service area.
In 2008 Villa Manzoni is transferred by the Bank of San Marino to its foundation, the Ente Cassa di Faetano, which starts the restoration to be addressed as seat of artistic and cultural initiatives.
The building missing in decorations and refinements typical of noble houses but, beyond its architectural value, is in the historical memory that lies its great value. For that reason, the restoration and functional recovery project, entrusted to Architect Semprini for the architectural part and to Eng.Casagrande for the structural one, harmonized with the customer, determined not to compromise its nature, by recovering everything possible. It has been therefore opted for an approach in respect of the old building while avoiding to descend into a passive conservation and making, if necessary, changes to the existing architecture.
| Products | Main uses |
|---|---|
|
Kimitech PRIMER |
Masonries cladding by using carbon steel fibers; |
| Kimitech EP-IN | Punctual anchoring systems to non-expulsion connectors in carbon fiber; |
| Kimitech CMP Kimitech CB 320 |
Bandage of masonry columns with carbon fiber reinforcements; |
| Betonfix FB | Reinforcements of masonry arches through carbon fiber fabrics application; |
| Kimisteel LM | Realisation of "chains" of fiber tie rods in carbon steel and “sfiocchi” in steel with efforts dissemination; |
| Limepor IZ8 | Widespread masonry reinforcement by injecting hydraulic lime mortar aimed at increasing the characteristics of stiffness and resistance to compression, tension and shear. |
Villa Manzoni has now coming to new life and, from its inauguration in November 2013, hosted important conferences, exhibitions and cultural events. Take a look at the video below, realized by ECF Foundation:
Thanks to Architect Mirco Semprini and to Kimia Agent Gianluca Calisti for his precious collaboration. You find below the photo gallery. Other images of Villa Manzoni are available on mircosemprini.com
To talk about project phases, here is Architect Mirco Semprini
The restoration project started with one of the cardinal principles of the restoration theory that is to carry out actions in the name of "minimally invasive and maximum reversibility". In some rooms of the main floor, in order to preserve its gentilice image, the trellis vaults have been consolidated and restored on site, in their support structure; by taking into account the degradation of the supports to the original masonry, have been realized intermediate anchors over centerings by using carbon fiber strips made of epoxy matrix, hanged up, through steel chains, to covering timber beams, resulting so in ceilings hunged and not supported. A painstaking restoration work permitted to recover the pictorial surfaces placed at trellis vaults intrados.
The cognitive survey on the existing masonry, consisting of elements in rough stone and pebbles irregularly placed and tied together by a lime mortar with poor mechanical properties, have resulted in identifying a masonry loose and poorly constructed parameter. The plaster removal has thus laying bare a no-homogeneous and no-cohesive status. In many parts, through the "break-fill" technique, have been consolidated the masonries by reusing stone elements previously removed, thanks to the use, that time, of a natural lime mortar as binder with high mechanical properties, enhancing greater compactness and regularity. Sometimes, have been entered to dividing walls and within the original parameter in stone, horizontal courses of bricks and wooden elements.
Villa Manzoni has to be considered as a full "landscape resource" in relation to European Landscape Convention regulations also signed by San Marino in 2000. The performed work has been designed as example of using memory of places, still readable, in its broadest territorial context, although substantially changed. Today, the building can finally go back to being the cornerstone of a new urban asset by rediscovering a happy relationship between territory and social life.
Mirco Semprini, Architect, born in 1970, lives and works in San Marino. Owner of Semprini Studio, deals with restoration, architectural and urban planning design and design of interior furnishings for public and private customers.
Sito web: www.mircosemprini.com