Architecture & Design

Architecture & Design | 7 WHAT ARE YOUR EARLIEST MEMORIES OF ARCHITECTURE? Taking me down memory lane. For sure my parents house - my father is an engineer and very hands on at home. My parents are always going on about how they made a lot of things themselves, including the terrazzo tiles of all the house. They used to make five tiles a day, after work, out of off cuts and small pieces of marble. Maybe subconsciously this was the beginning of my love for natural materials/stone. I still remember observing all the small pieces of marble, the different veins and colours. I also remember helping my father in the basement fixing all the extra tiles that he collected over the years on the basement walls as a backdrop for his workshop. As you can see I look up to my father a lot and was like the son that he never had. He paints and restores/ builds all sorts of steam engines, so his workshop was my little maze to explore colours, materials and different tools and machines. On the other hand I used to spend my summers at my Nanna, who lives in an old town house. Used to love all the retro colours of oil painted walls, layers on top of layers of colours in different rooms of the house. On the weekends, we used to go with my nannu to his field, and that little room with the little green gradenza used as a kitchenette and wrought iron bed painted pink combined with broken Maltese tiles, was where I first fell in love with colours. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK? Let's say that for me my work makes me happy when we manage to give the client an experience of space, materials, light and texture. I think achieving a design which is timeless, which tells a story that in 20/ 30 yrs time would still be valid is very important for me. Working a lot with old dwellings and retro-fits taught me how to look at the past and instead of erasing it, trying to highlight the beauty of it's existing architecture, respect it and interpret/ compliment it in a contemporary way. I think if you look at my past work the use of volumes, colour, patterns and materials are very important tools to give the client the right experience of their space. HOW DOES IT FEEL TO HAVE FOUNDED ATELIER MAISON, AN AWARD WINNING COMPANY, AT SUCH A YOUNG AGE? When I think about it and considering the jungle of an industry that we work in, the satisfaction feels really good when you see a project that other people appreciate. Our work is a long term thing and to get a project to my satisfaction, which then I manage to get photographed, apply for an award and manage to get an award, it's a real big deal and means the world to me. I always aspired to have my own design office and to be able to actually do it and get projects to completion to an award winning level is an accomplished dream - with much more to look forward to. WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON MODERN BUILDINGS AND HOW DO THEY FIT INTO THE TRADITIONAL MALTESE BUILDING STYLES? Not sure what you mean by modern buildings here. If by modern buildings you're referring to the copy and paste concrete jungle we've created over the last years - there isn't much I can say apart from what a great opportunity we've wasted. However, if by modern buildings you mean the contemporary approach to architecture to fit within traditional Maltese building styles, I'd say of course it can. If you look at the most beautiful cities in Europe, it's normal to see modern buildings/ additions being built in the heart of cities. I believe that development is not bad if done in the right way. Actually development is a way forward for a community to thrive and grow. If every architect and developer, had to keep in mind that by every building that they are proposing they are writing tomorrow's history, our island would be in a much better architectural state than it is. WHAT LED TO YOUR BIGGEST SUCCESS AS AN ARCHITECT? I think I can give most of the credit to the first few years of my career. The first two years were a very steep learning curve. At the time I was working in a very small office on a huge project. The architect who I worked for has a marble workshop, so the exposure to natural stones was a great opportunity to learn about different materials and detailing. WHAT HAVE YOU BROUGHT TO ARCHITECTURE IN MALTA? Sound like a very grown up question. Let's put it this way - I'd like to believe that in my projects, I managed to give the client a sense of belonging and a space that gives the client something that they didn't know that they needed through the interaction of spaces, material and colour. The recent merge of Atelier Maison as part of A360, will hopefully give me a great opportunity to expand this vision to my team and some very exciting projects that we are working on. CAN YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT THE MERGE OF ATELIER MAISON AS PART OF A360? WHAT MAKES THIS COLLABORATION SO EXCITING? These are extremely exciting times - not easy until we settle in but it's amazing to be part of a really cool team. The intention of A360 was always to have an all round service to be able to complete a project to a professional standard. At Atelier Maison we always focused on design and A360 were more focused on structural design, planning and project management. Therefore, this collaboration/merge made perfect sense. Whilst still working and focusing on design, now we have the support of a really good team to complete a project and vice versa. This makes us able to take on a vast range of projects, from commercial to residential, from interior design to I think striving to be better and to leave a better place for future generations should always be the target of a design architect. Mindset is everything in our work " "

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