All the wrong details in all the wrong places (1)

Giuseppe Schembri Bonaci (The Sunday Times, June 14) is right to complain that some of our modern architecture is being turned into farmhouse kitsch.

What started off as a minor trend in 'converted farmhouses' has now become a widespread practice as plastering is removed from old walls and, very proudly, we show off our walls fuq il-fil.

This absolutely wrong interpretation of what restoration is all about has the blessing of most architects. That this should happen to an icon such as the Hotel Phoenicia is really incredible.

Plastering, or intonaci, is removed even in the most historic places. Some walls, never meant to be uncovered, look like rubble walls. The whole design context of these buildings, as well as the traditional use of lime-wash, is being lost forever.

The same has been happening to balconies, apertures and shop fronts. I have tried to stop the trend, in places like Valletta and Vittoriosa, to scrape timber structures down to varnish when they were always painted.

The Heritage Advisory Committee has always backed me on this and their recommendations always state that apertures and shop fronts must be in coloured timber, yet this goes on all the time and is not stopped, except in a very few cases, by Mepa.

The timber balconies only in varnish are particularly visible in the Cottonera area and in Sliema.

This could also be seen in the article 'The balcony maker hangs up his tools' (The Sunday Times, May 24). I must, however, point out two glaring mistakes in the photos of some of his balconies.

In recent years a great effort has been made to stop the 1970s trend to replace traditional wooden balconies with aluminium ones. Unfortunately, we still have aluminium balconies, in Valletta and Vittoriosa, from that period.

The Valletta Rehabilitation Project had teamed up with the then Planning Authority, to organise a grant scheme for the restoration of this important feature in our heritage cities.

Mepa eventually went on its own and extended it to a large area of our territory. It was always emphasised that balconies should be restored but many were just replaced and not rebuilt to their original design. On the other hand the balcony restoration scheme was a huge success and should be maintained, but with greater supervision.

Mepa should also remove the aluminium ones in Valletta and Vittoriosa by giving a one-off chance for these to be done in timber.

Balconies in Malta were never finished in 'natural varnish' as seen in the pictures and as we see everywhere: this is a grave mistake. There was a reason for this as our sun scorched the varnish (though today we have more resistant varnish).

Balconies, like all apertures, were painted in specific colours. Varnished balconies, as well as doors and windows, completely alter the view of our architecture in our historic towns and should not be allowed.

As for the roofs: while admittedly it is difficult to find workers to do them in deffun, we could avoid having the wavy plastic so apparent in the picture accompanying the article. The traditional spouts should also be obligatory.

The detailing of all this work could be done in much more authentic way, but unless these details are imposed we will continue to try and turn our buildings , even in historic cities, into glorified farmhouses, even though traditionally these were also lime-washed.