The former Sea Malta site in Marsa should be returned to government and used for cultural or community purposes, a top environmental NGO has said, after a court judgment ruled its demolishment in 2017 was illegal.

“The government entrusted the building to Enemalta. They broke that trust  and, therefore, the government should take it back,” the executive president of Din l-Art Ħelwa Alex Torpiano said.

A court of appeal recently confirmed a judgment which had declared that the Planning Authority (PA) had acted illegally when it allowed Enemalta to demolish two-thirds of the former Sea Malta building in Marsa. Torpiano said Enemalta had broken the government’s trust after being handed the site as part of a concession.

The building could be repurposed to house a community centre or turned into a museum dedicated to industrial heritage, said Torpiano.

Formerly known as the NAAFI, it was originally built in 1948. 

During British rule, Marsa was used as a berthing place for small naval vessels and later became Malta’s first industrial estate when the economy moved away from military activities to light and heavy industry.

In recent years, the government signalled an openness to invest in Marsa, declaring it Malta’s first Capital of Culture in 2021.

As part of the award, the area benefitted from a €200,000 fund to run a series of events.

There are several examples of transforming former industrial buildings into museums.

In 1970, Bradford city council in the UK bought a large milling building from the private company that owned it to create the Bradford Industrial Museum.

Other examples include London’s Tate Modern, Paris’s Musée d’Orsay and Rome’s Museo d’Arte Contemporaneo di Roma, all of which managed to successfully shed their industrial past to find new lives as cultural centres.

Demolished ‘for no good reason’

The original court case was opened by Din l-Art Ħelwa, the Kamra tal-Periti and Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar in 2018 following its decision to allow the building’s demolition the previous year.

The appeal ruling on October 23, Torpiano said, had been a “long time coming”.

The judgment signalled the end to a “whole saga of the Planning Authority dragging its feet, wasting time and refusing to accept the court’s decision”, he said.

“Why could they not accept their mistake? Why did they keep on insisting they didn’t break the law?” Torpiano said.

Calling the decision to demolish the building “completely unforgivable,” he said it was a foregone conclusion that nobody at the authority would resign or face disciplinary action following the ruling.

Chamber of Architects and Civil Engineers (KTP) president Andre Pizzuto called the ruling “bittersweet”, noting, however, it would not bring the building back.

The demolition was yet another example of the PA “wilfully misinterpreting the law in certain circumstances,” Pizzuto said.

Decision to demolish building completely unforgivable

Stressing the significance of the building, Pizzuto said the former Sea Malta Building was an example of a fine modernist building.

Despite the façade of the building being retained, the two-thirds of the building that had been demolished had windows which were very indicative of the modernist style, Pizzuto said.

The Sea Malta building had been one of the first concrete structures in Malta, he said.

The destruction of modernist buildings across the country showed a lack of awareness of their value, he said, adding the Sea Malta building had been demolished for “no good reason”.

‘Cavalier lack’ of heritage protection

Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar coordinator Astrid Vella said the case was evidence of a trend of the PA showing  disregard for the protection of heritage sites.

“This is not an isolated incident, as the PA similarly accepted the demolition of the historic Manoel Island animal quarantine barn or ‘bovile’, on the strength of a report by MIDI’s own architect,” she said. 

In the recent appeal ruling, the judge found the PA had acted illegally when it acted on a report supplied by an Enemalta architect rather than using one of its own.

This is not an isolated incident

“This cavalier lack of protection of Malta’s heritage by the very institution entrusted to preserve it is deplorable. Despite being a fine example of modernist architecture, the NAAFI/Enemalta building had not been scheduled and, like the Marsa Power Station and the bovile, was permitted to be demolished,” Vella said.

“It is extremely worrying that, unless a property is specifically scheduled, the Planning Authority ignores its conservation value, and authorises destruction without weighing up a building’s historical significance.”

She said it was no accident that historic buildings proposed for development had not been scheduled, citing as examples the Fort Cambridge Officers’ Mess, Villa St Ignatius, Ramel Building and Palazzina d’Amico.

“It would seem evident that such properties are intentionally left unprotected by scheduling to facilitate their demolition and redevelopment.”