Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1502334
Architecture & Design | 7 A plea for the salvation of the character of the island. I n the decade of the 1960's two major changes were responsible for the basic transition of the Maltese islands' character. The first was the government policy of road widening in the heart of traditional village cores accounting for the devastation and spoilation of the local closely knit urban typologies. Already at that time, warnings were echoed to reverse these policies. In a special issue of the UK Architectural Review (July 1969), Peter Richardson, at the time teaching at the Architectural Department of the Malta University, penned an article entitled 'The rape of a village'. Richardson referred to the regretful breaking open of the tightly knit fabric of the village of Zurrieq as the "spoilation" of its essential character. He ended his article in hope that lessons could be learnt from the Zurrieq ravage and other villages could be spared. Alas, this was not to be. The other change was related to the growth of tourism and its necessary edifices together with an array of villas for retired foreign residents. This resulted in an explosion of new buildings on the island's virgin coastline, never before built upon. Although still in its infancy, the pattern of destruction was potently evident, and the writing on the wall was already there for what was yet to come. Richard England, who in those days already believed that architects should not only be designers of the future, but also defenders of the past, penned a 1970 'Save Malta Manifesto' as a prognostic warning of future destruction. The Manifesto's graphic image designed fifty years ago remains strangely potent and extant to this day. Regretfully, as in the case of Richardson's plea to save Malta's villages, the Manifesto also fell on deaf ears. Today's situation is even more tragic with the new high-rise mania and policies of additional floors in village cores. It seems perhaps that a new 'Save Malta Manifesto' is needed even though regretfully it will surely fall on the deaf ears of the mammon greedy worshipping developers. SAVE MALTA