The headline appearing on the front page Back To The Drawing Board - PM (March 6) was most heartening. I thought that, at last, reason had prevailed. This euphoria, however, proved to be wishful thinking and quite short-lived. The heading referred to primary healthcare reform. Momentarily, my mind had raced to the Piano proposal for our old theatre site!
The headline on page 3 was even more unbelievable and devastating: Government To Rely On Piano's Advice. This notwithstanding the ever increasing voices of dissent rightfully and constructively screaming against the proposal.
Renzo Piano is, undoubtedly, a world-renowned architect but he must also be a very lucky architect. Clients who give their architects carte blanche with their money are very, very hard to come by and let's face it, such an attitude could prove to be very expensively naïve.
The proposal to build an open air or semi-open air ruined theatre enclosure looks brilliant, if it were a last-year architectural student's thesis project. Very exciting and definitely top grade. But reality dictates otherwise. This proposal is a non-starter.
No amount of futuristic technology can hide the fact that such an enclosure, at most, will only be used for a few weeks in spring and autumn. Everyone knows that our summer is festa season when the traditionally big bangs, really big bangs for days on end, reign supreme, no matter what. This is Maltese tradition. Wasting money on such a big white elephant is a shame and if one's architect presents such a proposal, notwithstanding his reputation, he should be sent back to the drawing board.
Having a Piano-designed project linked to our City will be a great thing but having a piano which plays off key will be a complete disaster.