Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar (FAA) has studied the Renzo Piano plans for Valletta’s City Gate area, aspects of which are worthy of merit, and will be presenting its views on the various elements in four parts.
It is regrettable that regarding the City Gate project “Anything is better than the present ugliness” might be the view of some who fear that that Government might withdraw its plans to improve the entrance to Valletta and to rebuild the Opera House site. FAA finds this type of resigned thinking regrettable.
FAA emphasises that this is an opportunity not to be missed and that the country cannot afford to get it wrong again. FAA therefore invites Government to make public the brief since this would indicate the limitations imposed on the architect and what Government had requested of him.
Furthermore FAA notes with great concern the lack of consultation, especially since the wishes of all who were led to believe that the theatre would be rebuilt, have been brushed aside.
In other countries major projects are handled differently, with project proposals being presented to the public in time for meaningful discussion to be held in order to avoid controversy upon presentation of the architect’s project.
While a theatre and the reconstruction of the City Gate area were on the cards civil society never called for a new parliament. This was proposed by politicians and no one else. This idea was mooted some five years ago and dropped since the building of Parliament on the Opera House site did not enjoy much popular support.
The Parliament building is being foisted on taxpayers, who will be paying for a parliament through its taxes at a time when Malta can ill afford a project of these dimensions, having just passed through the worst six months of the nation’s economy.
This project gives the impression that the Opera House site will be given a face lift because the bombed site ‘has acquired historical merit’ however the emphasis of the brief given to Renzo Piano seems to have focussed on the Parliament building than on the theatre.
FAA has always maintained that plans should be presented holistically, an approach which is essential to the long-term success of any major Valletta project. Government has commissioned a Valletta management plan, a first draft of which is about to be published. This plan should be consulted before any decision is taken on a project of such magnitude.
Such a plan would take into account the fact that Malta has very few resources but has a surfeit of large under-used palaces which cannot all be converted to museums. In view of the recent announcement that the St Elmo project is largely stalled for lack of funds, a study of alternative buildings available to accommodate Parliament would allow Government to save on a €40 million parliament project that has no touristic, employment or social regeneration benefit, and use a large part of those funds to realise lower Valletta’s potential as a culture and heritage centre that would be the pride of any nation.