In the wake of the ‘Enough is Enough’ protest march on September 7, Simone Vella Lenicker, the president of the Kamra tal Periti (Chamber of Architects) made an impassioned apology for the part her profession has played in the uglification and ramshackle overdevelopment that has gripped Malta.
It is a rare day in Malta when any profession in any walk of life (the caring professions excepted) – indeed, any person of responsibility, especially in government – is prepared to step forward to own up to their part in hurting the citizens of this country and to apologise unreservedly for it.
Her article of September 17, ‘When Enough is Not Enough…’ was brave and refreshing in its candour. She declared passionately: “Enough to planning policies that do not respect citizens. Enough to authorities that do not plan properly and do not respect the environment. Enough to large-scale construction projects and lack of transportation planning… Enough to a construction industry which is allowed to operate in an unregulated manner.”
But despite being fully supportive of the concerns raised by the protesters, she also frankly acknowledged: “Our profession has contributed to the degradation of our urban environment… The protest brought to the fore our role in the current state of affairs… It is easy to blame the government and ‘the developers’ for the chaos that reigns in our streets, our towns and villages, for the lack of proper planning and regulation, and for the proliferation of streetscapes that are devoid of character.” But, she admits: “At least in part, we are complicit.”
She cites examples: architects putting their names to applications with little regard to the context and significance of its impact “on neighbouring architectural gems”; the development of gardens within urban areas without advising the client that its preservation may be more beneficial to the project; the developments which have an adverse impact on streetscapes, simply because they are permitted by the letter of the law but not its spirit.
“Are we not collectively,” she asks, “one of, if not the main culprits of the ugliness that surrounds us?”
She has only to address that question to those well-known architects who were responsible for the first 24-storey high-rise building in Malta, the Portomaso Tower in Paceville, the high-rise carbuncle at Tigné Point, impinging on the iconic skyline of Valletta less than 500 metres away, and the construction underway at Townsquare in Tigné, to get a short-shrift, disingenuous answer to the question.
Her apology on behalf of the periti is genuine and well-meant. But it will take a greater combined approach by architects – as well as the other major recidivists in the business and construction community – to ensure that the outrage being expressed by people in all walks of life at what is happening to their urban and environmental spaces is translated into policies that safeguard Malta and Gozo for future generations, rather than exploiting them for short-term gain.
The public won’t hold its breath in the hope of receiving similar apologies from the Planning Authority and the Environment Resources Authority. Or the business magnates, construction developers and their sundry leeches and hangers-on who have enriched themselves over the last few decades without regard for the consequences.
Instead, one can only hope they read carefully what Vella Lenicker has written and then have the good grace to look around them and weep.