THEY SAY ABOUT US
BRUCCO AND THE “BIG” OF TURIN
Architect Giuseppe Brucco, inventor and innovator, from its headquarters in Chivasso – near Turin – manages Deltasolar together with his son. The company is an established leader in air-conditioning through radiant floors. Their services have been used in several important renovations of the “new” Turin: the Mole Antonelliana with its Cinema Museum, the Egyptian Museum, the Reggia of Venaria just outside Turin. Deltasolar has been using for several years for its patented systems several components produced by Giacomini; a prolific and solid relationship has been established between these two companies.
A FEW WORDS ABOUT THE CITY…
In the last few years Turin has been changing and showing itself to the world under a new light: very colorful and full of cultural events, but also sportive events: the Winter Olympics. It is not known anymore as the grey company-town as in the 60s, when workers starting to come from all over Italy to work at Fiat and the other automotive companies. Turin used to be only and all an industrial city, and its inner beauty was hidden, because it was grey, covered in dust and smog.
Tutto ciò fino all’anno in cui la Sacra Sindone fece il
“miracolo”: era il 1978, quando Papa Wojtyla decise di venire a Torino per pregare il Sacro Lenzuolo. Come sferzata
da una fresca e gioiosa brezza ripulitrice, contrapposta alle solite ciminiere, tutta la città si risvegliò per quell’evento:
volle improvvisamente essere più bella e tirare fuori dai cassetti tutti i suoi ori per farli finalmente rivedere. Politici,
imprenditori e comuni cittadini cominciarono a guardarsi attorno: ognuno di loro si rese conto delle bellezze della sua
città, intorbidite dallo smog delle ciminiere e dalle marmitte delle auto, e soprattutto dalla carenza di spirito culturale
e di rinnovamento, che fino a quel tempo aveva da troppi anni pesantemente sonnecchiato, mentre chi aveva provato
ad alzare la testa era stato ignorato. Si vollero così rivalorizzare i gloriosi edifici di cui Torino, che è anche una grande
città d’arte, è colma.
At least until the Sacred Shroud did the miracle: it was 1978 and the Pope, Wojtyla, decided to come to Turin to pray the Sacred Shroud. The whole city awoke and wanted to be ready for the event: everything had to look beautiful, and it was time for the beauty of Turin to be known to the world. Politicians, entrepreneurs and citizens started to look around: everybody realized that Turin was full of beautiful works, covered by smog and dust, but in particular by the lack of cultural interests and renovation. This is when the glorious building of Turin started to be re-enhanced; buildings that fill the city to the brim.
The studies made years before at the Architecture Faculty of the University of Turin were taken into consideration. Under the direction of Arch. Giovanni Brino a “color plan” had been studied. Several buildings were given back the original colors they had centuries before. The citizens stared to tour around their city, maybe for the first time, realizing that their city was indeed beautiful and could be once again glorified as it had been in the past. 30 years have passed since that first visit of the Pope, and since then things have been improved even further. The ones who haven’t seen Turin in years would hardly recognize it now, and the Winter Olympics enhanced this renovation movement even more: Turin looks like a small Paris, with historical buildings and brand new gorgeous buildings, the river Po with its beautiful bridges, wondrous churches, and huge parks such as the Valentino.
RESTORATIONS AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Several buildings’ facades have been restored, but in particular new technologies have been implemented inside in order to use those environments in the best way possible both socially and culturally. To satisfy these needs, particular heating and air-conditioning systems were needed in order to provide the maximum comfort both to the people and to the art works contained in those buildings. Men have always been trying to live in comfortable environments, and their needs have become more and more exigent. The hearth is not enough, and the heaters cannot satisfy the need of comfort and design any longer. Furthermore, in the restoration of historical buildings, the technology used to satisfy these needs, has to be completely invisible.
Among the buildings that characterize Turin, there are five which had specific comfort requirements: the Egyptian Museum, the Church of San Lorenzo, located in Piazza Castello, with its magnificent dome – made by Guarini, Diana Gallery and the Church of S. Uberto, designed by Filippo Juvarra at the Reggia of Venaria, and in particular the symbol of Turin: the Mole Antonelliana, which is visible from anywhere in the city. Also some commercial buildings and the Hotel Meridienne at Lingotto had some specific requirements to meet.
DELTASOLAR’S ROLE
After having searched for selective solutions for specific circumstances as the ones described above, Deltasolar has always been the choice, as it is specialized in heating and air-conditioning with radiant floors. Deltasolar is not a multinational company, yet it is very known abroad for the research and the systems that have been installed. It is managed by Giuseppe Brucco and his son Alberto, and they have highly specialized employees. Together they can execute even very complex and custom projects; so far they have about 2.200 systems installed, mainly in homes – from housing projects to luxurious villas. Very important are the research and the excitement for inventions, which have characterized the owners of Deltasolar since they were kids.
SOME HISTORY…
While he was still in art school, Giuseppe Brucco would be called by professor Saini to hold physics lessons for his schoolmates. He would teach to them how you can play with magnets, how would a steam engine work, and how the Sun could… heat. When he was 18 the yet-to-become architect Brucco had his own first patent: the deflector for the Mini Minor, which would allow to “condition” with an adjustable gust of air the inside of this car made in the 60s (a famous factory of auto accessories sold several thousand of them). It was when he was studying at the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Turin that he participated in specific research on the use of Sun for heating purposes. It was immediately evident that it was possible to heat water at 70°C to send through the heaters, but it would have been optimal from an energetic point of view to heat it at 30-40°C only. To lower the temperature they had to increase the heating surface so, after having researched into this idea, they realized that the heated floor would be the best system. “At the time, radiant floors were already available, but they were made with steel pipes placed inside the slab; furthermore they reached temperature as high as 60°C, causing feet swelling”, Architect Brucco explained during our interview. “I believed in this project, so I asked to cooperate with some doctors and biologists working at Sorin Biomedica in Saluggia, in order to understand how the human body “thermally” works, and therefore which are the optimal temperatures for the floors. That’s how the research to dimension correctly the radiant floors began; I wanted to use the most natural criteria as possible, according to the new bio-architecture concepts that were being carried out at the time.” New systems were invented and improved and Brucco founded Deltasolar in 1983. The experience he achieved together with the doctors and biologists was very important also because it allowed him to understand that in order to achieve optimal results he had to have high quality partners. “So, after having done research with ENEA’s technicians, we have chosen a high quality producer for our components; a company that was already working in the radiant floor sector and that was willing to cooperate with us in the research. This company was Giacomini. Since 1983 Deltasolar has taken several steps forwards, improving and patenting its systems: it has been cooperating with Giacomini to set up new technologies in the air-conditioning sector.
ALTERNATIVE ENERGIES
Alternative energies have always been present in Deltasolar’s history; the company has improved and implemented several heating and air-conditioning systems, from geothermal to renewable sources energy. “Experimenting has always been exciting to me since I was a kid; I still remember that when I was 8 I wanted to melt a glass tube using methane and hydrogen contained in a balloon that my parents had given to me. On the contrary, there was a small explosion and my hair and eyebrows got a little burned. I got scolded, but this didn’t keep me from entertaining myself with my projects. Experimenting is like playing a wonderful game that makes me feel good. There is still so much to research into such as produce drinkable water in the Third World Countries using the Sun, as well as producing low-cost hydrogen”. Among the several works made by Deltasolar, there are several installations with renewable energy sources: several customers heat and cool down their homes through geothermal energy from the soil, by means of a heating pump, without needing a heater.
IMPORTANT INSTALLATIONS
In 1988, Architect Brucco, already known for its researches by several designers, was called to set up the heating systems for the Egyptian Museum. They needed to have a radiant floor system which, aside from providing extreme comfort to the guests, wouldn’t alter the physical and organic conditions of the mommies and the historical pieces. The technical problems were serious due to the fact that the environments were irregularly shaped, the floor wasn’t very thick – only 10-12 cm – the piping for the electric, phone and computer cords. In the Ellesija room there were only a few square meters available to contain the radiant floor, while the room was big with big windows. Furthermore, the wooden floor would be interfering with the heat exchange. With Deltasolar’s patented system, which is not bound to grids or protrusions bulging from insulating panels, it was possible to satisfy such needs and to have the desired temperature in the rooms. In 1990 there was the need to heat a very important living-room – one of the most beautiful in the world: that of the Diana Gallery at the Reggia of Venaria. Its dimensions are 76 m in length, 11 m in width and 10,5 m in height; due to the fact that it has huge windows, it was very hard to find a way to heat this room. A few years before, a project had been presented: the idea was to install two big pipes with hot air beside the ledges. Fortunately that project had been rejected. The successful installation of Deltasolar’s radiant floors at the Egyptian Museum didn’t go unnoticed, and the company was called to verify the possibility of heating the living-room with its systems. The technical problems were really serious: in particular in the middle of the floor the thickness was really slim – less than 8 cm. Here a unique system, designed by Giuseppe Brucco himself, was used: at first the pipe was fixed on small railings with the help of small staples. Afterwards, more railings were placed on the pipe, removing the other ones. Finally, after the insulating material together with Deltafluid additive were placed, also these railings were removed. If it was possible to perform an x-ray on this portion of the floor, the radiant floor’s circuits would be visible, and it would be noticeable that there is no clamping system to hold them in position. Another problem was given by the fact that the manifold boxes couldn’t be placed in the walls, because the system had to be completely invisible. To solve this problem, the boxes with Giacomini’s manifolds were placed horizontally beneath the floor, calculating precisely the inclination, in order to force out the air bubbles towards specific air valves placed in the middle section. The radiant floor heating system used at Diana Gallery has been quite successful, and it supports the effectiveness of this system also for large environments. In 1994 there was the need to restore the Mole Antonelliana, so that it could be used to host the Cinema Museum; one of the main problems was heating an environment that is 78 meters high, with thermal loads that vary room by room. After having analyzed the various projects of several companies, Deltasolar was once again chosen to heat and cool down the Mole Antonelliana through radiant floors. The company used here as well the manifold components and accessories made by Giacomini.
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