I was moved by the depth of Luciano Micallef’s pain (‘Ravages of the building spree’, The Sunday Times of Malta, July 16).

Malta is unique in its history, architecture and values. Despite its miniscule size, it has played an important role in the values developed in the southern Mediterranean.

Malta is blessed by its strategic position, lying proud between the tip of southern Europe and the bustling shores of North Africa; bustling with trade, enriched by cross-cultural exchanges; blessed by its oolitic limestone used as a universal building material, easy to quarry, to carve and displaying excellent compressive properties.

It has been used effectively by the Knights of St John in the 16th century, by the master builders of the Renaissance to erect imposing baroque churches and of course to build private dwellings on a human level. This noble material has now been supplanted by cement blocks and concrete columns.

Malta is losing its soul, carefully crafted over the centuries, distilled by the vast number of occupants over time, and being monstrously replaced by a short-sighted mercantilist skyline; it is fast losing its values.

Stand up and stop this onslaught. Think of the generations to come. Do we want them to live in these luxurious “ghettos” as Luciano Micallef correctly names them, or in a serene and peaceful neighbourhood built for humans not sheep? Stand up and stop it.

I first came to Malta in 1974 and loved it ever since. My children spent their teens in Malta and cherished its homeliness, its family ties and its laid-back life philosophy. My daughter has recently moved back to Malta, escaping the concrete inhumanity of a big city.

We must not allow the rich human values to dissolve in ephemeral money cast in concrete.

A world famous urbanist, Constandino Doxiadis, coined a word and defined a concept for the architectural arsenal: Ekistics. It is the science of human settlements.

As well as being centred on the human being, an urban development must respect four dimensions: three of space with the fourth of time; how a physical development will fare in time. Perhaps the Maltese authorities should look up Ekistics before haphazardly issuing more building licences.