It has recently been announced by the government that three-, four- and five-star hotels are to be allowed to add further storeys to their existing layouts and facades.

This appears to me a step in the wrong direction. Our hotels will turn into unaesthetic monsters pervading our islands. We seem to have lost all sense of beauty, in the name of money.

Very controversial examples in recent years are the Cavalieri Hotel, in St Julian’s, whose form of a pleasant arched facade has recently degenerated into a square monolithic block, partially ruining Spinola Bay.

The new rising Parliament building at former Kingsgate and City Gate at Valletta’s entrance is another case in point. Enzo Piano’s office in Paris has foisted on us an ultra modern double building, which jars dramatically with the Knight’s city, though others may beg to differ.

We have become utilitarian, with little care for aesthetics, meaning harmony and beauty, in this modern consumer age. Our towns are suffering, and will keep on suffering, as a result of this planning of the uglification of Malta.

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