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Palazzo Giunta, Trieste, Italy

Great Antikhaus Rehabilitation Projects

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Palazzo Giunta, Trieste, Italy

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Total renovation of a building that had been unoccupied for 20 years, transforming it into a building of the Administration of the Italian State. The maximum priority was to preserve the existing architectonic elements, especially the windows.

State of the work

It consisted of case windows, of four panes on each side (interior and exterior,) with the exception of the existence of a small practicable pane in the lower part of the exterior windows.

The interior blinds still had a mechanism of special opening and it was located in the cases. The base and the sides of the case were covered with wood. Beneath the windowsill you could find elements of wooden sills (except on the balcony ones.)

All the windows were being integrated into the same construction at the same time as the brickwork was being carried out.
Only parts of the ironworks and the handles of the windows were being kept.
The exterior panes no longer had water-pourers; instead sheets had been placed serving a similar function.

Diagnosis

After an exhaustive exam of the state of the existing windows, the result was that 95% of them could be profitable in some way. We also determined that the rehabilitation “in situ” of the windows would have been completely pointless, en terms of impermeability, longevity and liability, due to the great flaws that the wood had suffered.

The abandonment of the building during years, it being located next to the sea, with the consequent problems created by the nitre and moisture and the lack of maintenance, were the main reasons that caused the wood to deteriorate.

It was essential to totally dismantle the windows, even though they were fit into the construction, so as to afterwards, in the factory, substitute the deteriorated pieces and apply all the other renewal processes, for its later installation. As a consequence of that, we elaborated a systematic logistics plan (dismantling, transportation, rehabilitation, transportation, assembly and/or placing in the construction.) We had to emphasize on the weight of the elements, which was between 450 and 480Kg per element (combination of window and case,) with approximate measures of 1.6x3.5-4.5m.)

Special attention was given to the old mono-crystals, of the “schliereng” type, in order to substitute them for others of the same characteristics and antiquity.
All of the olden glassware had to be dismantled in order to be cleaned and so as to be able to repair the windows and paint the profiles, before placing the glassware back.

The original ironworks and handles had been fabricated in Vienna, under a special patent, and since the majority of them were deteriorated, a solution had to be found.

Solution

The first problem was to fitting the installation of the windows with the rest of the brickwork, proceeding in creating a very detailed calendar, coordinating as much as possible all of the suppliers and the transportation, jointly in the production process of the windows.

All of the possible journeys to transport the windows within the building had to be studied, just like the choice of the places of storage within the different floors, and the coordination with needs of using the cranes. Our experience in works of similar logistics characteristics; hospitals, schools and buildings of the public administration, came in very handy in order to apply solutions within this project.

In order to extract the fitted windows a local company was hired. Since the damages of the windows had not been exhaustively detailed in their totality during the first inspection of the project, the time calculated to extract the first 30 windows was double, in order to create a standard in the system of working for the rest of the extraction.

We calculated that 50% of the glassware would break during the dismantling, so we had use the reserve glassware from other buildings of the similar epoch, in order to complement with uniformity the whole façade.

The problematic with the glassware was solved by using the glassware from both sides of the windows, like this making it possible to complete the exterior façade with original glassware, and the interior case windows, as well as those that led to interior patios, were installed with glassware of new production (“floatglas.”)

All of the existing ironworks were renewed in the locksmith’s department of our own factory. All the locksmith pieces that were needed to complement the construction, were newly fabricated, reproduced exactly as the original ones, thanks to the collaboration of small enterprises of the sector of that area, too.

The existing sheets, in a pouring-water mood, were substituted in their totality by zinc water-pourers, with special priming for its preservation, as were all the exterior windows, in order to guarantee a perfect preservation and great longevity.
Due to the detailed planning, the scheduled time of 14 months for the fabrication and placing was beat by the actual 11 months in which the project was finished.