Renzo's gentle touch to our City of gentlemen

I'm still gutted that Renzo Piano, a foreigner, was assigned the Valletta City Gate project. Had he been awarded the responsibility after an international design competition, the blow would have been much less crushing. It seems that the authorities feel our Faculty - that is the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering - is only there to train future periti to build flats and garages. I thought we were proud that the Maltese architect, Ġlormu Cassar, designed Valletta.

The 'Opera House' issue has been discussed to death in our faculty. We beat the dead horse so often that the twitching of the corpse almost gave an illusion of life, so any hint of a conclusion is long-awaited. Yet when the day of the presentation came around, I approached the initial drawings with the same dreaded anticipation that I would have towards an unknown result of a very difficult exam. Students hesitant to log in to their eSims account would instantly understand.

When I did have a look at the drawings, I have to admit that I was not as shocked as I thought I would be. I was almost disappointed that I wasn't as disappointed as I wished I'd be. I even found myself saying, "That's interesting" a couple of times.

Opera House

Whatever will take its place, it will always be called the "Opera House". Any other sort of building will never be accepted in the people's eyes. Some still call the street in front of it "Strada Rjali", which proves how slowly associations change. Realistically we cannot rebuild Barry's proposal as it would be a historical fallacy, and it would certainly not be finished within the projected four years.

This is where Renzo's piece de la resistance comes into play, as the Opera House is the most delicate of all issues. The light structure over the ruins will give the Opera site volume and shape, while giving it a versatile function with respect to the ruin's history. I doubt that any other proposal would be more ideal in its current state.

Freedom Square

The political history museum is a quick dose of Maltese history for tourists and a refresher of what our country has been through for the locals. I'm sure this will inject a sense of patriotism into anyone who visits. There is no better location in Malta for this than Freedom Square, the first area one encounters on entering the Capital of the country.

I love the juxtaposition of the Political History Museum just below the Parliament Building. It's as if history is being written upstairs, and the result is being archived downstairs. Yet I still find the idea of a Parliament to be a weak one. Had a carpenter told me that we should build a sawmill in Freedom Square, I would not have been the least bit impressed, as it's all he knows. You can imagine my enthusiasm when the politician said he wants a Parliament.

City Gate

City Gate leaves a lot to be desired. The karru-friendly thing we call a gate today has the sole advantage that it makes the bus terminus less visible from Freedom tarmac. Piano's proposal will make all the Bedfords and King-Longs far too visible while walking along the end of Republic Street.

The amendments to the bridge are ideal. Renzo rightly said that the current bridge feels more like a piazza than a bridge. The narrowing is then a no-brainer. I'm still not convinced about the location of the lift which leads into the ditch. He starts off by wanting to emphasise the old walls with his proposal to the gate, and then he plasters a shiny new lift on them.

Conclusion

For some people the area is so close to their heart that any change is unwelcome, but keeping the status quo is by far the worst thing we could do. The current designs will spur us in the right direction to give Valletta the entrance it deserves and badly needs. The aesthetics of the project are surely not yet finalised as people are still only starting to come to terms with the concepts behind the design. The way the buildings will finally look will depend a lot on the people's voices, which I hope will be both expressed and heard.

So in conclusion, and please excuse the pun, I believe Piano has certainly hit a good number of right keys with this project, but he hasn't quite finished the opera.

Christopher Mintoff is a member of Insite - The Student Media Organisation and has just completed his 5th year of Architecture and Civil Eng.