14/04/2009 | A Ditec Cubic 6 automatic gate opens the doors of Casa Maier

In Trieste, inside a well-renovated eighteenth century building of historic value

We are in Trieste “cità vecia” (Old Town), behind the harbour, inside an area known as Cavana.

Until the second world war, Cavana was an area of prostitution and petty business, temporary residence of many Trieste-based sailors during their stay in town before going out to sea.
A city within a city, a stream of small roads and lanes, of passers-by and residents coming from the most diverse ethnic groups.
Then people started to abandon the area, until ten years ago; nowadays, the area has been rediscovered thanks to a major urban revaluation project which restored the beauty and harmony of an area of great historic and architectural value.

Amongst the renovation projects started in the Cavana area, Casa Maier is certainly well worth a mention.
The building to be renovated is a palace built towards the end of the eighteenth century, in 1798, to be precise, which belonged to the Maier family, a wealthy family but with no history, like many other families living at that time in this Habsburg city. The building consists of three floors built around a courtyard featuring overlaid arches, accessible from the road by means of the original wooden entrance and a large underpass. Nowadays Casa Maier 1798 is the name given to this renovation work, which has taken six years to be completed, and has revealed, behind the fallen ceilings and other abandoned rooms, a sober and well-proportioned building, which is now inhabited by high-class people and is the venue of high-quality business activities.

In this impressive environment, Epoca property developers' in-house designers have decided to fit in the underpass a very smart load bearing glass entrance gate on oxidised brass wings, separating the main entrance facing the road from Casa Maier internal courtyard.

To automate this gate, which required an aesthetically pleasing solution, Ditec was selected for its know-how. The model installed by Ditec was Cubic 6, the underground automation for swing gates suitable to operate prestigious gates, as it perfectly blends in with the design of the gate without affecting its aesthetic value.

To make Ditec photocells even less obtrusive, they have been mounted inside the oxidised brass uprights, manufactured in the same material as the frames, the lift doors and the large windows fitted to the building. Even the cover plate of the underground automation has been manufactured in the same material, to give the whole building a harmonious look.

The ground glass of the wings also allows the heart of the palace to be seen, i.e. the courtyard which houses an impressive forged iron sculpture, weighing 1,800 kg, made by Basque artist Carlos Lizariturry, linking the old palace to the new Casa Maier.
Both sides of the glass wings also feature the sandblasted drawing of the frame, enhancing the beauty of the original wooden entrance, which still stands as a guardian for this beautiful work of art.

Another example of blending old with new, handled by Ditec with its usual skill, whilst keeping the integrity and the harmony of this historically valuable building.

To expand on this piece of news, we have asked Alessandro Beltrame of Epoca srl, property developers, some additional information on the work undertaken to renovate Casa Maier.

“ In via di Cavana no. 14, Trieste, a three-storey 2200 sqm building with two staircases and two lifts was converted into 15 flats and 5 shops. Quality was on top of the agenda during the design stages, pursued and achieved with common sense, without wasting money. All design choices were made with consistency, throughout the building, always pursuing the same common thread, explained by all decision makers involved with the project and then understood and approved by all the workers. The best products, materials and processes were selected with humbleness and patience. The project was set up to achieve quality of life, innovation, overall beauty, whilst protecting the history of the building, in the pursuit of simplicity, lightness, balance, and uniqueness without exaggeration. Quality which started from the building site, where the workers were handled with care and respect. Quality which was part of the friendly relations with the customers, who were taken care of from the presentation to the finishing and furnishing stage. The outcome of the project was a comfortable house, where anybody who visited, whether involved with the project, assessing its aesthetic value or just ordinary people, has been able to feel the care taken and the completeness achieved by this project. It is not the garden of Eden; our home is very human, we have experienced rage and disappointments, but the result has been successful, and will lead us to do it again... with the same style but with different, always new ideas.
We have asked Ditec an unconventional project for the automation of a gate requiring the fulfilment of very specific performance, reliability, and after-sales quality requirements, which are part of our systematic project as much as our customers’ smile.”