‘Demolish illegal buildings’: Could one change fix a planning 'banana republic'?

A vocal critic of the Planning Authority has won the institution’s own award, instilling hope in the architect for environment protection, as she made a call for radical action to stop the danger of the industry.

Architect Joanna Spiteri Staines is the first woman to have won the MASP President’s Award for a distinguished lifetime contribution to architectural education, theory and practice, particularly in the conservation of heritage and contemporary insertions.

She is following in the footsteps of “giants” and “mentors” like Richard England, Conrad Thake and Konrad Buhagiar, previous awardees.

“I was greatly surprised and humbled,” she said, acknowledging that she won the prize for “working with great teams” such as Architecture Project (AP), and Nidum and Openworks Studio, which she co-founded.

Currently design director for the Gozo Museum, Spiteri Staines was particularly honoured to be recognised for her work as a restoration architect, which is usually “hidden behind the scenes – not 20-storey-high, in-your-face buildings”.

An advocate for architectural heritage, Spiteri Staines has collaborated with Din l-Art Ħelwa since 2006.

She thinks the fact she is female could be one of the reasons for the award, but it was also due to her work on the rehabilitation of historical buildings and for speaking out for the protection of the environment.

For her, being an architect and an environmentalist were two sides of the same coin.

“You cannot be an architect without protecting the context, be it heritage or nature, that you are working within,” she said, adding that the three key elements were “proportion, harmony and context”, in sharp contrast to much of the discordant development going on.

Construction during appeals

Among her battles, Spiteri Staines has been vociferous about the fact developers cynically carried on building during an appeal, meaning that when a final decision was delivered, the damage was already done.

You cannot be an architect without protecting the context- Joanna Spiteri Staines

While permit suspensions during appeals were more frequent now, she noted that illegal buildings were still not being demolished, making the situation akin to a “banana republic”.

Developers would only take the regulatory authorities seriously when illegal buildings start to be demolished, she said, calling for an enforcement office that was strong enough to do this.

Illegalities should go back to a state of approved plans and any extra floors demolished, Spiteri Staines charged, adding that instead, developers did what they wanted and then submitted fresh applications to sanction all illegalities.

The dangers of building on top of the old

Adding floors to existing blocks was a “dangerous move”, according to the architect, who has raised issues about the safety of buildings in Malta and the erosion of people’s trust.

“I do not see enough investigation into the underlying conditions of buildings,” said Spiteri Staines. “When adding floors to existing buildings, does one really know what the rock is like from trial holes and cores?”

Spiteri Staines said she rarely accepted a project that involved building on an existing property – a possibility stemming from a planning policy introduced a decade ago, which paved the way for extra storeys above height limitations without the need to amend local plans and sparked a building boom.

“How architects accept to build four floors on an existing two-storey building is beyond me,” she said about what she termed a “dangerous move”.

Drawing on her own experience, Spiteri Staines said a client whose house she was working on had forked out €50,000 just to shore up and reinforce its rock foundations when they were found to be fractured on examination.

“And this is for a private residence. If he were a developer, would he have spent that amount of money to shore up the foundations? Would every architect have advised putting piles and pouring in concrete? How many developers do that?

“If you cut corners, or you think you know it all, you will not embark on this extra expense,” she pointed out, asking “what is giving some comfort to those having to spend €350,000 on a basic two-bedroom flat without knowing whether it was built properly, according to some form of regulation.”

Joanna Spiteri Staines receiving the MSAP President’s Award from President Myriam Spiteri Debono.

‘The big black cloud’

Spiteri Staines was speaking in the wake of the recent crumbling of an apartment block in Paceville, adjacent to a construction site, where excavation works were being carried out.

While she had no insight into this collapse, she said she was “not surprised”, referring to what she termed the “big black cloud of the construction industry”.

Spiteri Staines highlighted the absence of building legislation officers to test the quality of the concrete in the foundations of a building, as is done in the rest of Europe, where building codes to see if things are being done correctly are followed.

Most architects built according to these EU codes, but what if they were hardly involved by the developer or not present for some reason, she asked.

The award-winning architect makes stark warnings.

 “We need a regulatory body that checks whether the developer and architect are doing their job properly,” she continued, adding that the Kamra tal-Periti has for years been talking about building legislation everyone would conform to.

The transfer of property from one owner to another needs a ‘logbook’, with the structural drawings and all details required to give the man in the street assurances that he was buying something of quality.

“I have seen situations of cracks in buildings, when floors have been added, that you can put your finger – if not your whole hand – through, and they are then plastered over in gypsum.”

I have seen situations of cracks in buildings, when floors have been added, that you can put your finger – if not your whole hand – through, and they are then plastered over in gypsum- Joanna Spiteri Staines

In the case of weak foundations, those of the neighbouring sites had to be shored up, and a proper structural and geotechnical engineer appointed to do it.

Calling for an “intense review by a serious independent body of the entire construction industry regulation framework”, Spiteri Staines touched on other safety issues.

Fire guidelines for escape staircases in buildings of a certain size had to be signed off by a warranted mechanical and electrical engineer, she noted.

“Yet I have entered countless apartment blocks that have taken the short cut of having narrow radial steps instead of a landing when the main staircase is also the fire escape.”

Neither has she seen, in many cases, 30- and 60-minute fire doors to garages – a potential fire hazard due to battery-operated electric cars – which would block the staircase to overlying apartments and prevent it from becoming a ‘chimney’.

“If people are having to spend loads of money on a property, should they not be given the assurance that they are safe; that if there is a tremor of a certain magnitude, they are protected, and that if there is a fire, they can escape.”