Renzo Piano’s lead architect on Valletta’s City Gate project has described the decision to place monti stalls between the new parliament building and the open-air theatre as “shameful”.

“What can I say? It’s a shame, I am crying,” an exasperated Antonio Belvedere told Times of Malta from Mr Piano’s headquarters in Paris yesterday.

“It’s like making a cake and then spitting on it. It’s not an elegant metaphor, I apologise for it, but that is what it is,” he said.

His words came as Prime Minister Joseph Muscat stepped in to mitigate the situation after a wave of criticism at the ugly market stalls, which were made from a mixture of PVC, metal and painted wood, featuring eight-pointed crosses painted in red.

Dr Muscat (whose statement is similar to that of Small Businesses Minister Chris Cardona, see page 4) said he did not like the design of the stalls. He assured that these would be changed but added that he “does not subscribe to concerns about the relocation site and believes the new site will instil life in the city”.

It’s like making a cake and then spitting on it

Mr Belvedere yesterday insisted that placing the monti adjacent to the new parliament building would ruin an essential component of the project.

Aside from the new parliament building, in fact, most of the project involved creating open spaces. The former police station was demolished, making way for the new De Valette Square, while removing the arcades on Freedom Square helped expose the previously-buried St James Cavalier.“So, at the end of it, we’re saying that we cleared the site to make space for a flea market? Erecting a building is quite easy stuff; redesigning and reconfiguring a section of city to create a pedestrian pattern is much more complicated because you have to manage a number of things and it’s a huge effort.

Antonio Belvedere, Renzo Piano’s lead architect on Valletta’s City Gate project.

PM believes monti will instil life in the city

“And the value given to that effort is almost zero because what this means is that this area is seen as a secondary space of no value,” the young architect, who is currently also responsible for designing a city centre in San Francisco, said.

Moreover, he argued, there was an issue with the quality of the monti itself, a comment that chimed with those of many others who vented frustration on social media yesterday.

So we’re saying that we cleared the site to make space for the flea market?

“This is a souk but without the charm of a souk. A souk is charming, it’s full of energy, it’s messy but the mess gives you the sense of the beauty of life. This is just a mess,” he said.

This is not the first setback for the project, which has seen parts of it compromised following a series of controversies over the past years. However, the Italian architect said he found this latest twist to be sapping his energy.

“I don’t know what to say, I’m sad, I’m crying. And, at this moment in time, I have lost the strength to fight it,” he said, arguing that he had inevitably concluded that the project is not appreciated.

“I understand that this is a democracy and that not everyone will love it. But this makes us sad. We have done this project genuinely with such a humble approach. We have come here to do something with glass. We started from your island, from the stone. Probably there are people shocked by what we have done but this betrays the project and the effort.”