Waterproofing underground areas of the Santa Caterina Museum in Treviso

The project in brief

Construction typology
Historical
Year
2017
Place
Treviso (Italy)
Designer
Studio Venice Plan (VE)

The Church and Convent of Santa Caterina, whose work began in 1346 in the area of the city once used as a wood square, since June 2002 have been the main seat of the Civic Museums of Treviso, which house the Stories of St. Ursula: a cycle of fourteenth-century frescoes considered one of the best works by Tommaso da Modena. An imposing and fascinating complex, which contains an important part of the history of the city, which has undergone renovation works several times to keep all its beauty intact.

The last restoration, dating back to 2017, required significant waterproofing of the basement due to major infiltration problems both from the bottom and from the walls. Serious damage made it necessary to close the museum room.

A great challenge, both in terms of works to be carried out and time, considering the need to reopen to the public one of the works of greatest artistic interest in the city. The intervention was necessary and urgent. The infiltrations were severely compromising the entire basement of the museum. Once the entire structure was laid bare and all the finishes were demolished, attention was immediately focused on the reinforced concrete support, in very poor condition: friable, degraded and full of cracks.

SANTA CATERINA

The Challenge

Thus, the primary need to intervene to temporarily block infiltrations and better manage the total waterproofing of the basement, the access staircase and the tunnel connecting to the other museum area immediately emerged.

The work involved a team of specialists and solutions to seal each crawl space, crack and joint with specific waterproof mortars.

The intervention, in order to be complete and long-lasting, also had to be of a structural nature to obtain better, more resistant and more stable support.

Volteco solutions

All the walls have been treated carefully, taking care not to leave out any detail: plastered with fiber-reinforced coating technology with a waterproof function and covered with the use of fiberglass mesh to the advantage of a widespread distribution of dynamic stress, greater dimensional stability and limit salts creation in the walls.

Even the bottom, to prevent it from rising, was treated with a thick casting of about 7 cm of self-leveling waterproofing mortar.

The new casting joints were sealed and all surfaces treated with a highly elastic waterproof coating to increase the level of waterproofing even in the presence of negative hydrostatic pressure.

Waterproofing of the system shaft

The intervention also involved the waterproofing of the technical tunnel (plant shaft) through the use of the Amphibia 3000 Grip water-reactive self-repairing membrane, combined with the construction of a reinforced concrete counter-structure. Although it is apparently marginal work, it represents a significant example of how a correct and complete waterproofing design can guarantee the lasting protection of structures even in the most complex and least accessible spaces.

The result

Before the intervention, these rooms were unusable due to water-related problems (infiltrations and moisture). Thanks to the waterproofing works, it was possible to recover them and make them fully usable, transforming them into spaces intended to host permanent exhibitions of the Santa Caterina Museum.

The case shows how waterproofing is not only a technical solution, but a decisive element in restoring value and new functions to the existing heritage, while preserving its durability over time.

The complete reference

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