Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1502328
6 | Architecture & Design WW2's bombing left the city in ruin. here We see hoW one of the streets that Would have been Wrecked has changed. In 2015, when our development control design policy was published, it seemed as though there was nothing but good intentions in relation to new policy – up until the last two pages of the document: Annex 2 - Interpretation of Height limitation. This, together with a revised sanitary law to reduce internal residential heights to 2.6 meters, gives the opportunity to anyone to become a developer. I remember being a junior architect working on a project, and the head architect instructing me to fit in another floor, come hell or high water. Even though the sanitary law had yet to be approved, it was already widely known that this change would be made and plans needed to be amended in haste and in anticipation of the new regulations. Since then we have seen a number of iconic Maltese houses dropped so that they can be replaced by multi- storey buildings in various heights including towers. This is now what our architectural identity is. Grey, skinny, concrete – corridor dwellings with very little natural light. Streets have been engulfed in darkness as buildings rise on the same plots as the previous one or two storied houses since land appropriation for public space to make up for the increased building height remains unchanged. "The failure of architects to create congenial environments mirrors our inability to find happiness in other areas of our lives. Bad architecture is in the end as much a failure of psychology as of design. It is an example expressed through materials of the same tendency which in other domains will lead us to marry the wrong people, choose inappropriate jobs and book unsuccessful holidays: the tendency not to understand who we are and what will satisfy us." – Alain de Botton, the Architecture of Happiness. If this is true, then our built environment mirrors our core values – making money above all else – and our values shape our architectural identity. Not only has everyone become a developer, but the majority of architects have succumbed to the will of their clients who prioritise monetary gain. Is this then to be the future of Malta? Is this the legacy current architects will leave to their descendants? An appeal is being made for the adoption of a professional stance, primarily by architects but also by the authorities (ideally PA civil servants need to be qualified in their area of expertise) and legislators. The current trend of frenzied construction may be feeding one pillar of the local economy but the uglification of Malta will eventually have a negative effect on tourism, another economic pillar. It will also affect our sense of identity, our pride in our country, our standards of living and ultimately, if Alain de Botton is to be believed, our mental health. One of Birgu's pedestrian streets; as one of the three cities that faces Valletta, it is also protected protected. One of the streets in Birgu that would have been wrecked has changed, the start of the destruction of our architectural identity. Palazzo Huesca, Birgu, built in 1883, a good example of Maltese architectural identity a century ago.