DuraSoft

The expected results are punctual although high interdisciplinary expertise is required to achieve them. On one hand, it is about giving new qualities to traditional materials to improve their performance and, on the other, to produce new materials through chemical modification of wood. Making wood or straw resistant to biological attack in wet environment, likewise exotic woods or plastics, opens up a considerable amount of possible applications and new market niches and businesses opportunities.  The projects starts from the traditional use and the conservation of cultural heritage as important elements for the Upper Adriatic civilizations, taking up the environmental challenge to propose environmentally friendly products to be used in delicate environments. The use of biocides in the aquatic environment poses particular challenges as water dilates and conveys most of the traditional impregnating agents. Producing a product which binds to coniferous wood making it resistant to the aggression of aquatic organisms and at the same time not impacting on environment means offering fishermen and farmers, small house -builders and environmental engineers the possibility to continue using wood without turning to other materials, and obtaining it "at zero kilometer" directly from the Alps and the Karst. Getting Phragmites degrading very slowly means offering the possibility of returning to cover traditional houses, Casoni and Koce and Kozolci with reed roofs in sustainable way, recovering traditional professionalism and rare ancient activities which could still remain alive in some lagoon enclaves and in the Danube Delta.