There seems to have been some reluctance on the part of camera artists to photograph construction projects before they had reached completion. Most preferred to record something when it had reached perfection, rather than on its way there. That possibly accounts for the scarcity of antique photographs of big architectural or engineering projects still under construction.
These ‘work in progress’ images, when they exist at all, give good indications of the evolution of the project but, better still, they document old building methods and equipment, at a time when practically all the tasks were undertaken by hand. Today, it would be unthinkable to divorce buildings from high-rise cranes, concrete mixers, powerful winches and Hymac excavators.
Look at the old photos and you will mostly see flimsy scaffolding, wooden ladders and crossed erect poles with a hand-operated tarjola or composite pulley blocks. These building methods and techniques, passed over by oral tradition, only seem to have evolved imperceptibly over many centuries. And, yet, these ‘primitive’ methods achieved the pyramids and the Colosseum.
The most revolutionary changes started with the adoption of new building material, like cast iron for the new Valletta market begun in 1859, reinforced concrete in the over-ground water reservoirs and breeze blocks, which edged out the centuries-old more aesthetically pleasant but more expensive limestone kantun.
I am dividing this feature in two: this one focusing on civilian constructions and the next one dealing with ecclesiastical buildings.
Notable military or engineering works from the colonial era are included, like the Grand Harbour breakwaters, the Barrakka lift and the new ambitious Duke of York Avenue, now Girolamo Cassar Avenue, leading to Castille.
Excellent architects, engineers and mgħallmin (masters of their craft) ensured that very few building dysfunctions are recorded pre-1940s.