A collaborative project

Hotel L’Approdo is a four-storey establishment overlooking the picturesque marina of Castiglione della Pescaia in the province of Grosseto in Tuscany. Its location close to both the sea and the old town centre makes it an ideal venue for breakfasts and meetings, which are held on the recently refurbished terrace offering a combination of comfort, sustainability and safety. Originally built in the late 1960s and expanded over the following decades, the hotel has been renovated in stages since the 1990s. In 2021, a project was undertaken to refurbish the roof garden, which was created from the original solarium some thirty years ago when it was covered with wooden decking above a small cavity for water pipes and electricity cables. Dome-shaped awnings were then installed over the decking to create a covered area used for breakfasts and meetings.
The work carried out in 2021 was necessary because the wooden floor had deteriorated over the years and was beginning to show signs of water infiltration and to transmit footfall noise to the rooms below. As architect Daniela Bianchi from Grosseto-based Bianchi Arredamenti explains, the engineers suggested installing a new loadbearing floor, which involved removing the old decking, cleaning out the cavity below and replacing the plumbing and electrical systems with new pipes and wiring. “Apart from the design and material preparation phases, it was a quick and clean job that was completed in a few weeks and did not disrupt the hotel’s operations,” she explains, given that there was no need to hire a building firm to install screeds or floors. “The supplier of the loadbearing structure and the ceramic tile producer cooperated closely on the project,” noted Bianchi. After taking precise measurements, a raised floor type structure with adjustable feet was installed and subsequently levelled to eliminate height differences. The structure was designed specifically to hold the ceramic slabs, which were positioned on site and reinforced to make them self-supporting. The roof garden project involved close collaboration between Gionni Salvatori (manager of the Berni Store in Grosseto), Floorlab (the supplier of the load-bearing frame and installation system) and the Cerdisa Ricchetti Group, which supplied tiles from the Artwood Inlay by Ricchetti collection. These 60×60 cm square porcelain stoneware slabs simulate the inlay pattern of coffered wood panels complete with grain and aged effects and were chosen by the architect to “add warmth to the new space dominated by large windows and minimalist furnishings”.