The restoration of a historical flour mill in Xlendi was also rewarded.

The Fort St Elmo regeneration project earned DeMicoli and Associates a prestigious award at this year’s Din l-Art Ħelwa Prize for Architectural Heritage.

The prize is given every year to a building project deemed to have made an outstanding and significant contribution to architectural excellence in Malta.

The Fort St Elmo project was described during the awards ceremony as an ambitious undertaking of considerable scale and sensitivity. Some have described the fort complex as “a city within a city” which had been underutilised for many years, serving as the Police Academy and a store for building materials.

The original timber of the Valletta Gate drawbridge was found stored there.

Architecture Project, the firm behind the regeneration of Dock One in Cospicua also received an award for the way it transformed the area and regained access to Dockyard Creek, which now unites the residential quarters of the Three Cities through a continuous 2.5 kilometre-long promenade, linking Senglea’s and Vittoriosa’s waterfronts with gardens and public spaces.

The transformation of Casa Ellul in Valletta won Chris Briffa Architects an award for the conversion of the townhouse in the capital into a luxury guesthouse.

The rehabilitation and re-use “was executed with incredible flair and sensitivity to the house’s past”, according to the judges.

Architects Edward Said and William Lewis, who oversaw the restoration of the Emergency Underground Flour Mills and Grain Silos at Xlendi, were rewarded for the “intriguing” project.