- Location. Palazzo Ducale, St. Mark’s Square, Venice.
- Project type. Conservative restoration.
- Works start date. 14/07/2008. Duration of project planned to be 3 years.
- Client. BDG Holding srl
- Designer. Arch. Alberto Torsello
- Contracting company. Dottor Group S.p.A
– Coordinator for Security. Arch. Antonio Girello
- Consultancy and collaboration. Sat Survey s.r.l. for the instrumental, architectural survey and photographic survey.
- Architectural and Artistic Work. Restorations on the facades of the Doge’s Palace and the Prigioni Nuove facing Rio della Canonica and the Bridge of Sighs will involve the stone facings, the brick walls, railings and plaster. The first stage of the work will be to gather historic and analytical data, which are absolutely essential for drawing up an attentive and high-profile restoration project.
Therefore, once the scaffoldings have been set up, a series of chemical-physical and biological tests will follow, so as to identify the materials and the reasons for their decay, and to determine the most appropriate restoration methodologies. The anchorage of the slabs will be closely monitored using magnetometric techniques. At the same time, construction materials, the state of preservation and of previous restoration and maintenance work will be determined and compared with archive research.
The actual operational stage involves the following:
- biocidal treatment;
- Reinforcing. Divided into pre-reinforcing everything that could be affected by subsequent restoration work, and reinforcing by means of injections, gluing and hinging;
- checking on the anchorage points for the slabs of the stone facings, repairing them where needed;
- removing soluble salts and cleaning the surfaces, a great deal of which are covered by dark incrustations and rust stains;
- treatment to inhibit iron oxidation processes;
- removing plaster that has deteriorated or is not compatible with preservation of the original materials;
- plastering cracks and fissures and the joints of the brick walls and repairing gaps in the plaster;
- applying a protector where necessary.