A Planning Authority campaign urging home owners to avoid vibrant colours on their façades has gone down well with some but slammed by others, who say authorities should be more concerned about the recent surge in high-rises.
Posters shared online recently by the PA read: “Tiles look nice... but the façade of your house is not a bathroom” and “colours are beautiful... but not all are appropriate for the façade of your house”. [attach id="685627" size="medium" align="right"]Part of the PA campaign. Photo: Facebook[/attach]
A spokesman said the posters depict practices that exist in village cores which “knowingly or unknowingly reduce the cultural heritage value of village cores”, or urban conservation areas.
[attach id="685578" size="medium" align="right"]One of the posters shared online by the Planning Authority. The caption reads: ‘Colours are beautiful... but not all are appropriate for the façade of your house’.[/attach]
Such practices include the use of tiles and bright colours on façades, the placing of air-condition units, unsightly gold aluminium apertures and canopies over driveways.
According to the posters, the use of tiles and colours that mar the aesthetic uniformity and sight of the house and the street disrespect heritage.
The campaign did not go down well with some social media users, who called out the authority’s approval of “monstrosities” and development on ODZ land, among other concerns.
For those who pay, it’s ok to ruin skylines... with concrete towers
“So we common mortals need to keep in line with the surroundings when it comes to colour, but for those who pay, it’s ok to ruin skylines and the built environment with concrete towers. Get your priorities right PA,” one Facebook user said.
Others, however, shared photos of brightly painted façades, asking the authority to act.
Some architects welcomed the Planning Authority’s initiative. Architect Karl Francalanza said that, in principle, the authority was right in pushing for street-scape coherence. However, he suggested planners should place greater emphasis and adopt a stronger stance on the general form, style and proportion of new buildings that are built next to older ones.
Some on social media posted photos of what they said were bigger planning sins than coloured facades. Photo: Facebook“While I understand why the PA is urging people to be mindful of colours and tiled façades, this may be short-sighted,” he said.
“Personalised façades can in themselves lead to beautiful landscapes. Take the coloured façades of Burano in Venice or the tiled houses in Porto and Lisbon as cases in point. Village aesthetics must be considered on a case-by-case basis.”
He added that in localities which already had a tradition of cladding façades, then long-term planning which set a vision of what the village should look like in the foreseeable future ought to take those traditions into account when judging proposals.
Meanwhile, the PA spokesman said the authority believed that education played an important part in safeguarding village and town cores and complemented other initiatives.
These include the Irrestawra Darek scheme, the scheduling of a number of residences in localities such as Sliema and Gżira and the recently-launched Marsamxett Balcony Grant Scheme in Valletta.
The PA campaign focuses on tiled or coloured facades. Photos: Facebook