The Chamber of Architects has expressed concern over the planned demolition of a large part of the former Qala primary school (picture), which part in recent years had been used as the Institute of Tourism Studies campus in Gozo.
The chamber described the existing building as a unique structure worthy of consideration as part of Malta's built heritage.
The project consists in the building of a new complex for the institute. It involves the investment of €1.3 million, 75 per cent of which will be provided by the European Union.
The school, the chamber said, was designed and built in the early 1960s when, following the introduction of the 1946 Education Act, an attempt was made to provide a school in every town and village. Designed by Joseph Huntingford (1926-1994), a Maltese architect employed by the government, it is one of the finest examples of modern architecture on the islands, the chamber said.
Mr Huntingford was responsible for the design and construction of some of the most important government schools in Gozo between 1950 and 1961.
"Exceptional in its layout", the Qala school comprises a series of finger blocks perpendicular to the street linked by open covered walkways, classrooms organised on two stories with their own resource room, and open courtyards. The finger blocks are separated by landscaped gardens. In the proposals shown to the chamber, a large portion of the school is to be sacrificed to make way for the new ITS training facility. A new single-storey block will replace more than half of this modernist landmark, the new intervention bearing no relation to the existing design, it said.
The chamber had offered its free assistance on the project and had suggested alternatives which would have safeguarded a large part of the complex.
The Heritage Advisory Committee and the Integrated Heritage Management Team within the Malta Environment and Planning Authority had also advised that the existing building ought to be retained as part of Malta's artistic heritage. They recommended that it be restored and adapted to accommodate the new use, the chamber said.
"Regrettably Mepa ultimately gave in to pressures and approved the proposals."
An attempt was made to speak to Mepa yesterday but The Times was told that key people in a position to comment were on leave.
The chamber said it strongly believes that the uniqueness of the Qala school is worth acknowledging and added that it was truly disappointing that no effort had been made to restore the property rather than demolish a large part of it.
It supports the idea of the new facility being housed in a restored Qala school - "a building of true character and a tangible manifestation of the ingenuity of local post-war design".