Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1539007
Architecture & Design | 17 overdevelopment that it is experiencing and allow people in the field to truly value its environmental and historical heritage. In your view, how can architecture play a more significant role in combating the global climate crisis? At the urban scale, planning cities more thoughtfully can dramatically reduce the need for transport. Why separate offices and residences, for example? Models like the traditional casa bottega, where living and working coexist, can reduce travel and energy use. At the architectural scale, we must design zero-energy buildings that respect orientation, maximise ventilation, and use insulating materials. And we must integrate trees; in streets, squares, courtyards, and even buildings themselves. Imagine if every project included shaded paths and leafy spaces; our urban environments would be transformed. Who inspires you and why? David Chipperfield. His work exemplifies craftsmanship, proportion, and harmony. At Museum Island in Berlin, he managed to create a contemporary idiom that respectfully dialogues with Schinkel's classical architecture. It's a masterclass in sensitivity and restraint. If you could give one piece of advice to aspiring architects, especially those looking to create meaningful, sustainable work, what would it be? Value the world around you; its heritage, its natural landscapes, and its people. That respect is the foundation of meaningful design. Looking ahead, what are you most excited to explore through Openworkstudio or your personal projects in the coming years? I dream of Malta having a true opera house and cultural and residential area, a proper rehabilitation for the inner harbour industrial area, akin to Copenhagen's Opera Park, located along the water's edge in Marsa. I imagine a contemporary, sensitive series of buildings together with restoration of the existing historic buildings surrounded by leafy pedestrian areas, integrating with our industrial heritage and injecting a new lease of life into this dilapidated area. S Y N T H E T I C PA L A Z Z O R E N D E R : I + A " Heritage can only be preserved if it isn't overwhelmed by visual 'noise'… from afar, an intervention should harmonise with its surroundings, while up close it should remain distinguishable from the historic fabric