can still sabotage the best laid procedures. A polarized two-party political system filters public input along political lines — the party that did not come up with the idea is against it no matter what it is. There is much agitated debate and gesticulation with little action. Satellite TV, CNN, the Internet and travel bring new desires to these Islands. Entry in the European Union is seen by some as the way of the future; olonialization will then be complete and permanent. Like the proverbial dog who sees its own reflection in the pool, Malta is giving up its bone, its heritage, for something else. What then will the visitor see?
Visiting the Island of Malta for the first time, one is in awe of its history. Situated between Gibraltar and the Middle East, Europe and North Africa, it was settled or visited by the Who’s Who of Mediterranean power. Everyone left their mark, from eighty prehistoric sites to Roman ruins, to Renaissance monuments of the Knights of St. John.
letter from Malta Carmel Gatt
O VER the last fifteen years Malta has developed almost uncontrollably. On the surface, there is growth and prosperity the likes of which have never been seen here. The tourism industry is now building second generation five-star hotels and resort villages, too many to fill. Untrammeled residential construction has buried the old villages behind a dense barrier of poorly designed terrace houses, semi-detached homes and villas. Eighteenth century houses have been demolished to make way for ugly condos facing the sea. Much heritage has been destroyed in the name of progress. Malta now has its first high-rise office tower. Imagination is scarce. Although Malta has been politically independent for thirty-seven years it will take many generations to eradicate the colonial mentality ingrained in the culture after six thousand years of political overlording. There is still the us/ them divide, although the us now elects them. As a consequence there is little sense of ownership of the public domain. Roads are poorly constructed, sidewalks are driven over and broken soon after they are made, bus service is abysmal, the list goes on. The us wait for them to fix the problem. Most public environmental and planning policies are the master plans of foreign consultants, executed by local officials. The processes may be exemplary on paper, but whom you know (and on a small island everyone knows everyone!)
above:Three generations of street building in Sliema: the centre vitrine is probably original and early twentieth century. The one to the right is a 1960s renovation — that slight arch is a copy of a Richard England detail. England, a Maltese architect, studied in Milan in the 1960s, bringing that very influential era in Italian architecture back to Malta. The bay on the left is from the 90s. In Malta, any piece of building over 60 square feet requires an architect, this balcony of aluminum and tinted glass most likely falls below that. Sliema is a resort: such eighteenth and nineteenth century houses, once the summer places of the middle class from Valletta, are being replaced by tourist hotels and condos.
above left: the Balluta Building in St. Julien, late nineteenth/early twentieth century. Such buildings are increasingly flanked by or worse, replaced by, buildings such as the one in the centre picture, built in the 1990s. With the fall of the 20 year old socialist government in 1987, there was little planning infrastructure in place to handle the subsequent 10 year building boom. The result is the wholesale demolition of Malta’s urban history in favour of fun in the sun Mediterranean development.
Carmel Gatt is an architect working in Calgary who recently visited his homeland.
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