My professional relationship with the building of a Malta Parliament scheme spreads over four decades.

The first encounter with the project dates back to 1974 when I was commissioned by then prime minister Dom Mintoff to design, what is still to this day, Parliament’s active arena, located in what was formerly the Armoury Hall within the prestigious walls of the Valletta Palace. The project was conceived as an overall installation detached from the palace walls, a sort of box within a box, in order not to impose or infringe in any way on the original palace walls.

Working with Mintoff as my client was an arduous, yet exhilarating experience.

Years later, in the decade of the 1990s, after winning a number of competitions for the design of a new theatre on the old opera house site, I was commissioned by the Nationalist government to produce a master plan for the whole entrance area to Valletta. This incorporated the design for the theatre, Freedom Square with underground parking, Renzo Piano’s 1987 gate and bridge, the rehabilitation of St James Cavalier and a proposal for an underground bus terminus between Vincent Apap’s fountain and Piano’s gate.

This project remained ongoing for a number of years with, however, the only part realised being the rehabilitation of St James as a National Art Centre, which featured as the Malta millennium project.

When Lawrence Gonzi was appointed prime minister, the brief changed to incorporate his request to house a new Parliament building on the opera house site.

I personally was never convinced that this was the right location for Parliament as I considered the entrance area to Valletta to be far more suitable for cultural and recreational purposes, in order for the whole area to act as a magnet to attract people.

Only a master architect of the stature of Renzo Piano could have turned Malta stone into Malta lace

I had suggested that the new Parliament should be located in the area at present occupied by the theatre at the Mediterranean Conference Centre, the former courtyard of the Sacra Infermeria. This would have provided Malta with a new internal structure located in one of the finest architectural buildings in the whole of Europe. It would also have embellished the surrounding areas.

Despite my insistence, this was not to be and I therefore proceeded to prepare designs for a Parliament building on the opera house site as requested by the prime minister and Cabinet.

The design incorporated my philosophy that an architect should not only be the designer of the future but also the defender of the past. The project featured a glass façade with portal and window details borrowed from Girolomo Cassar’s auspicious Valletta auberges.

This project remained ongoing for a number of years but never went beyond the drawing stage.

My third encounter with Parliament relates to the aftermath of a number of failed attempts on the part of the Nationalist government to persuade Piano to return to once again take up the design of the Valletta gateway.

His original 1987 project was unfortunately ‘temporarily shelved’ and never saw the light of day, a fact which seemed to have deterred Piano from returning to take up any future Malta project.

It was a telephone conversation that I had with Piano on the occasion of his daughter’s visit to my house that finally managed to persuade him to take up the prime minister’s invitation to submit a new scheme. During that conversation I stated that I was willing to give up my own commission if he were to take up the design of the whole area.

My relationship with Piano was always that of a warm friendship and great respect for his genius and I think he may have appreciated the fact that in all my projects for the Valletta entrance master plan I had incorporated his original gateway and bridge.

Today, I am proud to say that I was part of the process that initiated the manifestation of what is without doubt an extraordinary Parliament complex and a magnificent imposing gateway to our capital city.

Only a master architect of the stature of Piano could have turned Malta stone into Malta lace.

The staircases between the Parliament building and the fortification bastions must rank among the most enthralling and beautifully-sculpted stairways anywhere.

If the whole project has any part which does not rise to the exceptional level of the whole scheme, it would be the open-air theatre, which seems to have lost much of the poetic qualities of the original model. The fact that the alabaster panels have been discarded further contributes to the loss from the original concept.

There is no doubt, however, that the whole scheme is a veritable masterpiece.

One hopes, and this I must say is an absolute necessity, that Piano’s proposal for the garden in the ditch and the bus terminus layout will be made manifest. To leave the former as a car park and the latter in its present unsightly state would be a calamity that would only serve to decimate the superb quality of the whole enchanting scheme.

The decision to house the hideous, amateurish and unbelievable ugly monti stalls adjacent to this masterpiece was, to say the least, an ill-conceived and catastrophic one.

The new Parliament and gate complex must be completed as envisioned by the Renzo Piano Workshop. To eliminate essential parts of the project and inflict ill-designed stalls on its adjacent periphery constitutes an unforgivable error that would only deduct from the overall superb quality of the whole project.

Richard England is an architect and artist