Celebrated British architect IAN RITCHIE, involved in projects such as the Louvre’s glass pyramid in Paris and now Farsons’ Trident Park, tells Fiona Galea Debono about what he learned from 10 years in Malta.

The world-renowned architect behind Farsons’ low-lying Trident Park and regenerated Brewhouse believes the day will come when high-rise buildings will be torn down as he contemplates the “disfiguration” of Malta.

It has been a 10-year journey on the island for Ian Ritchie, who has worked on the newly inaugurated office space and iconic brewery transformation since 2014, and who now weighs in on the direction the country has headed along the way.

Ritchie recalls alerting former prime minister Joseph Muscat to the impact of high-rise structures in the vicinity of the Farsons project in a meeting about the improvement of Mrieħel through a master plan for the industrial area.

Trident Park and the Brewhouse were designed to avoid compromising the island’s skyline and historic sightlines between Valletta and Mdina.

“I presented to Muscat the view from Hastings Gardens towards Mdina, saying high-rise buildings would destroy one of the world’s great views.”

But that message seemed “contrary to the economic drive of those in charge of the country at the time”, Ritchie relates.

What he got in return from Muscat was “silence”.

The view towards Mdina from Hastings Gardens, which now shows the Quad towers in Mrieħel in the distance. Photo: Matthew Mirabelli

The way had already been paved for high-rise buildings in areas that went against the government’s own study on where they should be located.

A picture taken from that view now shows the Quad development towering in the distance.

“That was a period when context, concern for the environment and the opportunity that prime minister had to leave a good legacy was blown, frankly,” Ritchie maintains.

The decisions taken then are “appearing like an international virus, making Malta like any other place”, rather than focusing on its uniqueness.

“It is like a Dubai or a Singapore landing on Malta. Why? That destroys what you have, and it becomes just like any other international city.”

Getting rid of the rubbish

Since his warning, high-rise structures have sprouted haphazardly in Malta.

But Ritchie, the eternal optimist, does not think they are necessarily irreversible damage.

He points to London, where the market for workspace is diminishing post-pandemic.

His architectural practice, Ritchie*Studios, which has received over 100 awards, is close to Canary Wharf, the central business district that boasts towering office buildings.

It already has hints of a ghost town, he says.

“I watched it all go up and I am probably going to watch it come down,” Ritchie says matter-of-factly. “Buildings get demolished. Not here? We will see. How many will remain empty?

“You can sell an empty building, almost like money laundering, but there comes a point where it does not make any money and gets parked. You want to use that money, so what do you do? Try and sell it to someone else. You cannot. What happens next?”

Ritchie working on site at Trident Park in 2019.

Ritchie believes a country’s politics can change quickly. He predicts: “You may find that, in a few years’ time, someone wants to get rid of this rubbish.”

Given he has always been told he is 20 years ahead, it is not a theory to discard. It may require compensation to the owners, but it could happen, he says confidently.

Back to being human

As one of the global leaders in envelope-pushing design, and driven by an ethos of serving society through ecologically sustainable, responsible and ethical projects, Ritchie says the Farsons project is for tenants who do not want to go into air-conditioned buildings and sit in high-rises; who do not want to spend time in lifts and be able to open a window whenever they want.

It is about going “back to being human”.

“I did not propose anything that would go above the architectural topography of the island,” he says of the development that did not involve demolition – a waste of money – and excavation. The innovator wanted to set an example with the project’s ultra-low-energy cooling that works by moving water at 16°C through the piping embedded in the concrete slabs on every floor.

It had never been done in Malta, but “we studied it hard and looked at the physics”, Ritchie says.

The adaptability of the building and its economic viability were of equal importance and if, in the future, the demand for workspace drops, plans have been presented to show how to convert it simply into housing.

Ego of architects who do not listen

It could become residential or a university campus with minimal internal amendments, Ritchie said about making buildings that last.

“You cannot predict the future, so people need the security that they have an asset they can use irrespective of the economic climate. Trident Park is our best example.”

Ritchie was looking to makes spaces “where you can be happy”, using pleasing elements such as courtyards, windows, gardens, buildings that shade each other – old formulas in new ways.

“If you are happy, you work better, and society comes together,” he says.

“If everyone is standing on their own, it does not work,” he says. “I have never understood why we have standalone objects. That is just the ego of architects who do not listen.”

According to Ritchie, buildings are not the problem. It is about the way humans behave.

Corruption, greed and shortcuts

Referring to the recent fatal building collapses on the island, he said that when you know the facts, it is not hard to know how buildings stand up.

“So, it is about corruption, greed and shortcuts.”

On the other hand, it was the “cultural depth” of the Farrugia family, his “quality” clients, which attracted him most to the project – a pioneering example of the preservation of industrial heritage as the Grade 2-listed Art Deco brewery from the 1950s was revived.

Ian Ritchie and Farson’s group chairperson Louis Farrugia.

The richness was phenomenal, Ritchie said, as was the mixture of cultures that the leading architect found so charming.

Then came the political upheavals and the killing of a journalist. They were “tricky times” – a period when planning greed was allowed to drive development, Ritchie believes.

He sent a message to the Planning Authority during the inauguration of the project, expressing the hope that this has given it “a benchmark of commercial development quality, rather than development greed; which future planning can aspire to and prevent the further disfiguration of this beautiful island”.

To Prime Minister Robert Abela, he said – quoting his UN assembly speech on the need for peace, equality and prosperity to ensure quality of life that has security and social harmony – that it is through concrete actions, such as those at Farsons, that such ideals are achieved.

Among Ritchie’s top five world-renowned projects

Ten years ago, the project was also seen as an opportunity to regenerate Mrieħel, and this is happening in Ritchie’s view, although mistakes, like building another car park, were being made.

“The future is not the car,” says the man who wrote that it would be “all electric” 40 years ago.

Ritchie’s world-famous projects and major engineering works include the Louvre Pyramids and Sculpture Courts in Paris, the Reina Sofia Museum of Modern Art in Madrid, the Dublin Spire, and the Royal Shakespeare Company Courtyard Theatre. Trident Park ranks among his top five, including the Leipzig Glass Hall and Royal Academy of Music.

Ian Ritchie’s design engineering firm was involved in architect I.M Pei’s glass pyramid at the Louvre in Paris. Photo: Shutterstock.com

He describes it as “a commercial project that has produced architecture”.

“I have invented in all office blocks but this one has the benefit of my understanding of harmony, music and rhythm, a higher level of environmental engineering, and much of what I got from neuroscience.

“In a way, it is better on many levels than many other buildings I have done,” says the man whose profession is also shaped by poetry, philosophy and neuroscience.

The projects Ritchie enjoys most are those “where you love the whole process, the client, the site, the culture. Then it all comes out in the building.”

His future plans include an invisible bridge and a ghost barn, and he envisages buildings will one day be grown from plants.

Ritchie believes no one can point at any of his designs and say they are his, adding that “if you make a brand out of your architecture, it means you have stopped thinking and it is the image that counts.

“But the duty and power of architecture is to have knowledge and to be servants. It is an honour to serve society and not yourself.”