Projects
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8/28/2023
Parco del Mare Waterfront
Sport courts, promenades and cycle lanes: Mapei took part in this extensive refurbishment project with the installation of porcelain tiles and the creation of a basketball court
Sport courts, promenades and cycle lanes: Mapei took part in this extensive refurbishment project with the installation of porcelain tiles and the creation of a basketball court
Green spaces, sea, sport and wellbeing: these are the ingredients of the new Parco Del Mare in Rimini (Central Italy), an extensive refurbishment project to transform 16 km of the city’s seafront promenade. The project, which got underway in 2019, will transform this stretch of the Romagna Riviera into an area of excellence at European level, enhancing the city’s vocation for tourism and enabling the area to be enjoyed all year round rather than just in the summer.
Once completed, the waterfront will stretch from Lungomare Sud (South Promenade) to Lungomare Nord (North Promenade). Refurbishment work started from the two extremities and has already transformed the Belvedere areas in Marina Centro (a central district in Rimini) and the Spadazzi Promenade in the Miramare district. Work in the northern part, at Torre Pedrera and Rivabella, has already been completed.
The promenade has been completely pedestrianised and features gardens, areas for sporting activities, cycle lanes, sand dunes, typical Adriatic Sea vegetation, well-equipped, open-air gyms and various games areas: a new way of interpreting life in the open air that reflects a holistic concept of wellbeing.
Installation of sardine-shaped porcelain tiles
Parco Del Mare Sud has been divided into nine sections that will be refurbished over the course of several years. Sections 2 and 3, from the Belvedere in Piazzale Kennedy to Piazzale Pascoli, were completed in 2022.
Mapei supplied materials and provided technical support to the contractors working on the project. The client asked for the various works to be completed as quickly as possible to limit their impact on the various commercial activities in the areas being refurbished.
The product chosen for the cementitious screeds (an area of around 6,500 m2) was MAPESCREED ADVANCE CR TRACER, a polymer admixture for high-strength cementitious screeds with a semi-dry consistency, and with a very high capacity to reduce cracking. It is recommended for screeds placed in areas subjected to high loads and reduces set to foot traffic times, the time required to carry out site work and waiting times before installing covering.
Installation of the porcelain tiles proved to be an arduous task and the company that carried out the work performed brilliantly to overcome the various problems that inevitably arise when working on such a vast, complex site as this one. Each tile had to be placed in a specific position in order to create the exact combination of colours and shades specified by the client. The thick porcelain tiles were hexagonal in shape and featured a particular pattern in bas-relief depicting images typical of Rimini artwork, specifically created for this project.
Specific technical solutions were also required for installation work carried out during periods of high temperatures, such as those registered in the summer of 2022.
The porcelain tiles were installed along the promenades with KERAFLEX EXTRA S1, cementitious adhesive with extended open time and no vertical slip.
KERAFLEX EXTRA S1 was chosen to install the thick porcelain paving tiles over an area of around 4,000 m2, a high-performance cementitious adhesive with extended open time, no vertical slip and very low emission of volatile organic compounds (VOC).
The joints were grouted with ULTRACOLOR PLUS quick-setting and drying, polymer-modified mortar so that the various areas of the site could be opened to the public immediately once completed.
Rimini Beach Court Playground
There are eight areas dedicated to wellness and health along the new, refurbished Promenade. One of these is Rimini Beach Court, a new, colourful basketball court that combines sport and urban redevelopment. The court is the result of the collaboration between Moab, Red Bull and Rimini City Council and is an original work of the arts collective, Truly Design Crew. The court offers lovers of basketball a truly unique space to play right in front of the sea. The pattern features various iconic images of Rimini, such as the Tiberio Bridge, the Augusto Arch, the Eye Love Rimini Ferris wheel and, obviously, the sea.
The court was created using MAPECOAT TNS MULTISPORT PROFESSIONAL, a multi-layered, acrylic resin-based system in water dispersion with selected fillers, which enables multisport surfaces to be created with high resistance to wear, UV rays and various weather conditions.
The system may be applied on old, painted surfaces, on new cementitious surfaces or, as in this case, on bituminous surfaces that need to be coated. Five layers of product were applied: the first two layers were made of MAPECOAT TNS WHITE BASE COAT HV, a semi-elastic acrylic filler and undercoat, while the third layer was made with the super-fine-textured, coloured coating MAPECOAT TNS COLOR, which was used to mark out the various areas of the court.
