Malta: the radiant island?

When Le Corbusier famously proposed levelling the right bank in Paris to build mass habitation consisting of 18 skyscrapers, each 60 storeys high, including offices blocks and freeways connecting the buildings, it was a bit scary.

Much of Paris had been redesigned by Georges-Eugène Haussmann in the 19th century. Was it the right time to start the process of reinventing whole swathes of the city again?

La cité radieuse, by Le Corbusier, in Marseille, is the project that is often credited with (or blamed for, depending on your point of view) popularising both brutalism and high-density social housing. Most of the copies around the world became crime-ridden tenements and many have since been labelled as errors in social engineering and have been demolished. But the original still stands proudly, inhabited today by mostly upper-middle class, educated residents who are proud of their building and what it stands for.

I have a great respect for modern and contemporary architecture but much of what is happening in Malta could best be described as building and too much of it. The latest craze is façadism, whereby the façade of an old palazzo is maintained but where the interior is often mutilated by an insensitive conversion.

When it comes to skyscrapers, why are they cropping up randomly? Surely, a designated area should be identified for investors allowing for quality contemporary architecture and, hopefully, the preservation and conservation of our old palaces and houses, at least the ones that are still standing.