World-famous architect Renzo Piano was not given a written brief for the re-design of Valletta's main entrance and the final designs were the result of a "process of interaction", according to the Investments Ministry.

If anything can be called "the brief", a ministry spokesman said, it would have to be the government's "extremely candid" statement at the beginning of the process that it wanted a Parliament building on the site of the opera house.

After the initial meeting between the Prime Minister and Mr Piano, the government changed its mind and agreed with the architect's suggestion to build Parliament in Freedom Square.

"The government did not hand over a document to Renzo Piano. The process of interaction between client and architect was publicly described several times by both the government and Renzo Piano," the spokesman said when asked whether the government was going to publish the brief it gave Mr Piano.

He explained that there were several meetings between Mr Piano and the government side, which was headed most of the time by the Prime Minister and on other occasions by Minister Austin Gatt.

It was during the first meeting held last year that the Prime Minister asked Mr Piano to come up with ideas for the City Gate area and to construct a Parliament building on the site of the opera house ruins.

The spokesman said Mr Piano came back in a subsequent meeting with the idea of using the space known as Freedom Square to develop Parliament because the opera house site was too small and it contained remains of architectural and cultural value.

The government was persuaded by Mr Piano's idea.

"Certainly the government passed on detailed information about its expectations for the administrative and legislative use of the Parliament building and also gave its feedback and reactions to the ideas put forward by the architect for all the other elements of the site," the spokesman said, insisting that the process that led to the final designs also formed part of the exhibition now at the Museum of Archaeology in Republic Street, Valletta.

"There is no other document or possible material that could have been published or exhibited and has been deliberately kept hidden," the spokesman said.

Reacting to a public request by the environmental group Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar for the government to publish the "brief" it gave Mr Piano, the spokesman described the organisation's cry as an attempt to drum up a "conspiracy of government secrecy".

"Astrid Vella could not bring herself to criticise Mr Piano for fear of being seen criticising an architect of world fame and repute. Instead, she attributed what she did not like in the designs to some conspiracy of government secrecy. There is no such thing," the spokesman said.

The government was convinced that Mr Piano's finished product was an "even better idea", he said.

"If we do not allow ourselves to be persuaded by people of the calibre, experience and reputation of Renzo Piano there is really no use in engaging such an artist for this project and instead commission in-house architects that we employ to draw up the designs of a pavement or a beach-side promenade," the ministry said.

ksansone@timesofmalta.com

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