a very fascinating case study: the home automation renovation of the Castle of Clavesana (Cuneo).
17th century residence founded by the Marquises of Clavesana, the castle dominates the Tanaro and overlooks the Alps.
Inside the rooms are characterized by frescoed vaults, period doors, terracotta floors and spaces of great prestige. Two foreign entrepreneurs have decided to buy and renovate it, starting from the loft.
Home automation has made it possible to achieve objectives that, initially, no one had dared to aim for.
A castle with many problems to solve
Customers contacted me when the work was completed. Too late! This made it difficult to enter the project, maintaining a logical sequence, and carrying out those good practices that we usually convey through Design Home Automation.
The GAP architecture studio designed the renovation of the loft on the top floor of the Castle, collaborating with various workers. Unfortunately , no one had foreseen home automation to support the renovation .
Upon my arrival, when the electrician just had to pull the cables to finish his work, previously ignored problems emerged .
Central switch in the shape of a totem that controls the home automation in the Castle of Clavesana
During the design phase, the architects had provided for a single switch-totem in the center of the tower. This allowed to safeguard the harmony of the interiors, but did not make the use of the spaces and the management of two fundamental systems user friendly :
thermal system, with PID control
Dali Dmx lighting system.
alarm system, video surveillance with intelligent video analysis and video door entry system
Room Control Access
home theater system
mutliroom sound system
network and wifi (hotspot)
Combined management of heating systems
The clients and staff of the Clavesana shipyard welcomed my arrival with relief. There were a lot of problems going on and I'm glad I was able to help. Until that moment, it had seemed impossible to be able to automatically manage the thermoregulation of the loft.
This job has given me a lot of satisfaction . A challenge won, despite the construction situation being at a decidedly advanced stage.
To make the radiant floor heating and the wall-mounted fan coils work together , I have developed an algorithm ( Proportional-Integrative-Derivative) capable of managing the regulation speed of the systems. The temperatures of the two heating systems have been designed to rise synchronously . When the ideal temperature is reached, maintenance is guaranteed by underfloor heating.
Thermoregulation can be managed remotely and thus adapt to the needs of clients who, usually living abroad, use the Piedmontese Castle as a holiday home.
By tackling the renovations a little at a time, customers have not yet been able to focus on the problem of summer air conditioning . An important theme, especially in the spaces created in the attic. Despite the thick walls typical of period buildings, they can still reach very high temperatures. Fortunately, thanks to home automation it will be possible to implement the existing system, without having to proceed with further masonry works .
Management of lighting systems thanks to the help of scenarios
The impossibility of turning on lights, if not reaching the totem placed in the center of the tower, was the other great theme that determined my entry into the team.
Thanks to home automation I have created behavior scenarios that adapt to different situations and allow you to experience the space, without touching any switch .
The Welcome Scenario is activated upon arrival of the owners and welcomes them with a temperature set on the real weather conditions . The progressive switching on of the lights has the right degree of intensity, in accordance with the time of the day. Background music welcomes guests, adapting to the mood and situation.
The multiroom audio is an extra pampering that allows you to listen to the same music in all the rooms or take advantage of 16 separate streams , able to agree according to schedules and musical tastes.
The concept of Scenario, in the field of home automation, allows you to recreate real behaviors or situations that can be experienced by tenants. In our case there is also a “Goodbye Scenario” which takes into account the temporary nature of the owners' stay who could leave the loft empty even for a few months.
The system will turn off the heating, disconnect the power and do all those operations that are not performed on a daily basis.
A multifunctional burglar alarm, at the height of the Clavesana Castle
The security system has been set up to be managed very easily, through an App. The same that also allows the lights to be switched on. Even those in the walk-in closet.
I took advantage of the presence of the alarm sensors in my favor , to make the system understand when and how to turn on the lights. One of the moments in which this feature is activated is at the entrance to the walk-in closet. By moving the curtain that separates the cabin from the bedroom, the sensor detects the presence of a person and turns on the row of LEDs positioned in the space used as a wardrobe.
The renovation of the Castello di Clavesana involves the construction, in addition to the loft I worked on, of a hotel that will include five suites, a restaurant and a beauty farm with an indoor and an outdoor swimming pool.
At the end of the works, the Castle will play a central role in the field of charming hotel reception and will be a springboard towards Northern Europe for activities related to the food and wine field.
As a home automation and System Integrator enthusiast, I am curious to find out how many and which smart innovations can be applied to such a particular environment as the Castello di Clavesana.
Alex edmondo
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