For many years, the skyscraper of Cesenatico, built in 1958, was the highest housing element in Europe; it topped the Pirellone building in Milan by one or two floors and it is still today the highest building in reinforced cement, in Italy, with its 35 floors that expand to a height of over 115 metres. The skyscraper is part of the Cesenatico skyline, representing one of the symbols of the city and of the whole Romagna coastline.
After half a century, its restoration is an excellent occasion to create the right relationship between this reinforced cement giant and the city.
The restoration project, with a very high innovative content, is divided into two vital and distinct phases: the structural reinforcement, targeting to improve the safety and stability of the building, and the reconstruction of the façades of the building, aiming to give a new meaning to this symbol of the city.
TOWER, a company within the IVAS Group, has supplied the special products for the renewal of the reinforced cement and a continuous technical assistance, aimed to choose the most suitable cycles and deliver the specialized assistance required on site.
With regards to the remodelling of the façading, the planners chose a new skin made of slabs of porcelain stoneware/gres, supported by an aluminium alloy structure.
The package was proposed and calculated by ALIVA, another company of the IVAS Group, in accordance with the aesthetic and performance requests from the building supervisor, that had to resolve technical problems (first of all the durability and resistance to non-standard stress) but also architectural problems (to reproduce the colours, as close as possible, similar to those used in the original project).
After years of research and technical/architectural proposals, finally, in February 2007, application of the ventilated façade in porcelain stoneware/gres commenced, which should finish during the first months of 2008.
The first phases are documented with photographs on our website, that we will take steps to continuously keep up to date and will try to present this as work in progress, that gives the exact perception of the before and after the treatment, showing how a façade system in porcelain stoneware/gres can be flexible and adaptable to even challenging uses, but also how it can radically change the appearance of a building.