Unfortunately, Malta rarely entertains counterhistory when it comes to interpret its past. In a very traditional way, the majority of Maltese society still live in a traditional mental state that perceives history as a fixed past, not to debate and update, let alone assess intelligently. The past could often serve as a revelation for the future by understanding why we behave the way we do today.
Since colonial times, Maltese society had been marshalled into trusting their masters as long as one’s short-term economic survival is secure. Still, they progressed from accepting authoritarian rulings to reserving their verdict on their social situation at the appropriate time.
The historical alliance between the Catholic Church and the British colonialists kept the faithful within their meek fold for years. During the 1960s’ politico-religious debacle, the majority of the masses heeded their conservative ecclesiastical leaders but with time matured in a much more secular fashion. Maltese society’s perception of life and civil liberties evolved.
Powerful politicians replaced past domineering leadership
But bad habits are hard to break. Post-independence, a segment of the population felt comfortable in cult following influential politicians, who unsurprisingly replaced both the former colonial and the domineering ecclesiastical leadership.
Such a custom, however, courts peril when authoritative inspiration enjoys financial sustainment via interloping by big businesses who manifest profitable interest in putting or keeping collaborative legislators in power.
As Indian politician and socio-historian Shashi Tharoor posits, rather than teach former colonies how to govern, British colonialists taught them how to remain in power. This deadly cocktail – politics and greedy monetary gain – facilitates corruption.
Sliema’s colonial past
Perhaps one salient local indicator of this threat to society is the construction industry. Following in the steps of colonial planners, the Northern Harbour Area – where most barracks and fortresses were amassed – has been violently exploited to a state of defacement.
Like the Knights who built their auberges in Valletta on the fresh, brisk northern side, the British forces selected Sliema and St Julian’s, particularly Tigné and Cambridge, Pembroke and St George’s. In blind copy, modern speculators, clearly aided by allied sanctions, have exploited these former zones to such an extent that, today, they are allowed to build superstructures simply because the said region has already been ruined.
Suffice to point out that, according to Eurostat, Malta registered the highest increase in building permits issued in 2022 in the EU. Worse still, most of these buildings, including those in Gżira, have not shown any exhilarating architecture.
While recent government-promised investment in urban green areas could counter-balance the concrete craze, sustainable green lungs risk being squeezed out by dispensing more permits to construct multi-storey hotels and apartments in these residential areas. Adding insult to injury, most tall towers are built next to other clusters of horrid blocks that, at night, offer a sombre view of uninhabited apartments.
The Cambridge site is also flanked by Locker Street.Proposed Cambridge skyscraper
One such upcoming calamity is the possible sanctioning of the Sliema 19th-century Cambridge barracks 31-floor skyscraper hotel proposal situated on a narrow neck of land without apparent demand for new hotels.
Had the Planning Authority scheduled the historic building, as requested by the Sliema local council in 2015, it would not be able to approve the development in terms of the policy regulating hotel heights. An oversight with a purpose?
A PA final decision on this Cambridge scare, proposed by GAP developers, is expected tomorrow, July 13. An EIA heritage report had signalled that the building deserved Grade 2 scheduling. The PA’s own 2006 brief restricted the height of this ‘landmark building’ to three floors.
In 2021, the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage expressed concern on the visual impact on the Valletta skyline as seen from Grand Harbour. It saw this commercial centre in considerable balance with the residents of two narrow one-way streets (Locker and Tigné) adjoining the building.
The report notes that lack of sunshine on winter mornings will be substantial. In wintry months, this area is exposed to persistent cold, strong winds; compensation by artificial energy would certainly not be eco sustainable.
A cultural victory for ecologists in Paris
Unlike London and Malta, central Paris has preserved its low-rise historic character while allowing tall buildings around the fringes, notably the La Défense district.
On June 5, the city council, led by socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo and her Greens partners, passed a height limit of 37 metres. This is part of a new urban plan, which aims to reduce the city’s carbon emissions and revive the 12-storey limit imposed in 1977, which had been dismissed by another mayor in 2010.
In a recent feature on London and Paris high-rises, Rowan Moore in The Observer holds that while skyscrapers might attract foreign investment, they do not alleviate the housing problem.
Backers of skyscrapers claim they are exciting, modern, provide much-needed space for homes and employment and attract business. The zones at the feet of towers, however, do not enrich cities socially, culturally and spatially.
Going around such towers in London, Moore remarks, “has proved to become arid, lifeless places, lacking in specific character, their residents removed from street life by lifts and lobbies, their mood set by could-be-anywhere-landscape design and by those chains that can pay the rents for their retail outlets”. He compares them to cheap air travel: glamourous at first but now generic, dull and predictable.
Furthermore, superstructures require more steel and concrete. With lifts and air conditioners, they create population densities with guests and residents tending to use private transport and services, impacting traffic in a compressed area; not to mention the long construction years of din, dust and debris.