'Changing mentality' at Mepa praised - timesofmalta.com

Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar praised what it said was "a changing mentality" at the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.

In a statement it said the public were now able to take a much more active role in the processing of permits, where in the past registered objectors were often not allowed to speak at hearings.

"This is a very important step in favour of public participation in environmental and heritage matters. "

Mepa reform was also working in favour of greater sensitivity in urban and heritage protection.

FAA said Mepa recently resisted very strong pressure from hundreds of parents in refusing to grant a permit to build the St Augustine School junior school in the garden of a scheduled old Gwardamangia villa.

"Government's proposal to use the former medical school premises follows the new policy to first use or redevelop existing buildings, rather than build on open land."

The environmental group said this week, Mepa's Environment and Planning Commissions refused other projects which would have most likely been accepted in the past.

EPC A refused an application to build residences within a development zone, once the Qala Council and FAA proved that this site bordering an Out of Development Zone was part of a major water catchment area supplying 28 farmers with water throughout summer.

EPC B refused an application to demolish a house in Sacred Heart Avenue, St Julian's, one of a row of five certified to be excellent examples of colonial architecture.

FAA also maintained that this demolition would destroy the large old back gardens that formed a green lung in the area. Although this house was within the development zone, the Commission decided that the "floor area, massing, building depth and site coverage is of an excessive scale and would lead to an over development of the site. This would not be in the interest of the amenity of the area and would increase the problem of over-development."

FAA said it was surprised that the board chairman was the only one to vote against Mepa's Heritage Protection Unit and the Cultural Heritage Advisory board's recommendation to protect the site.

"The changing mentality at MEPA is further illustrated by the Mepa board session on the building of a seven-storey block of shops and 21 apartments at Spinola Bay, St Julian's.

MEPA's Major Projects Unit had recommended approval of this seven-storey block in an Urban Conservation three-storey area.

It was claimed that the building height should be calculated from half way up a public flight of steps and not from street level.

A regulation that applied only to Sliema was used in this St Julian's case, while the vista from the church square, designated as a protected view by Mepa, was to be lost.

FAA strongly objected to all these issues and Mepa chairman Austin Walker drew the board's attention to various issues, including the congestion of buildings in the area and traffic problems.

He also questioned the building's aesthetics and finally deferred the decision due to pending permits for the felling of trees in the Villa Fieres garden and other issues.

FAA urged Mepa to go the extra mile and ...

Read the full article:

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120316/local/changing-mentality-at-mepa-praised.411422

House prices rise for first time in two years

Times of Malta - Tuesday, 24th August 2010 - 08:15CET
House prices rise for first time in two years - Kurt Sansone

Advertised prices for property have gone up for the first time in two years, returning to positive territory in March, according to the Central Bank of Malta’s quarterly review.

Data show that in the first quarter of this year, prices increased by 4.5 per cent when compared to a year earlier, the first upward movement in 24 months. This contrasts with a decline of 1.4 per cent in the previous quarter.

Property prices started to drop in the second half of 2007 and took a sharp downturn between December 2008 and March 2009, as the global recession bit deep. Since then they have continued to fall but at a slower pace and the market started to show signs of stabilising.

The Central Bank’s data, compiled from advertised prices, show the upturn in the first quarter was primarily due to higher prices being asked for ....

Read the full article at www.timesofmalta.com

Maltese Property prices ... Where are we heading?

Do you agree with this article written in July 2008? What is today's situation?? Are you happy with the price of property in Malta? Is it a Buyers market or a Sellers market? Where are we heading? Shall we be forced to build larger, higher and more complex buildings? Does Malta have the necessary infrastructure in place and is it willing to invest in its existing infrastructure to accommodate even more complex buildings?

" Oversupply as Malta’s housing boom ends

Malta’s explosive housing boom between 2003 and 2004 saw house prices increase dramatically, with sharp rises in construction activity. However the housing boom is now officially over.

The over-all house price index fell 0.8% to end-Q1 2008 from a year earlier. When adjusted for inflation, house prices actually fell by almost ..."

Read the full article

Garden instead of car park

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100318/local/garden-to-replace-qui-si-sana-car-park

Thursday, 18th March 2010

Garden to replace Qui-Si-Sana car park

Mepa this morning approved plans for the building of a garden to replace one of the car parks at Qui-Si-Sana. The plans were proposed by the government, which also intends to build an underground car park under the other existing car park.

The new garden will include play areas for all ages, a gazebo, hard and soft landscaping, public facilities and a network of underground reservoirs.

The recreational space will be below street level for better protection from the wind.

The site is currently occupied by parking spaces for 52 cars. The underground car park will be twice as big.

The Resources Ministry, which submitted the application, is currently also revamping and widening the nearby promenade in a project due to be completed in June.

Issues worth revisiting: A new theatre from the old Opera House ruins

How does this information sound almost a year on. The original article is available at this link:

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090627/local/a-new-theatre-from-the-old-opera-house-ruins

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The ruins of the Royal Opera House will be retained in Renzo Piano's vision of an open air theatre at the top of Republic Street, revealed this evening.

The plans show an iron structure merged with the remains, with the area being turned into a piazza when there are no performances.

The Royal Opera House was destroyed by aerial bombardment in April 1942 and argument on the use of the site persisted for the past 65 years.

Mr Piano said the ruins had now become too important as a monument to be removed. The site was also too small to be used as a Parliament or a modern opera house.

See also:

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090627/local/revealed-the-new-face-of-valletta

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090627/local/the-new-city-gate-and-parliament

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090622/local/renzo-piano-interviewed

The designs are available at:

www.opm.gov.mt/vallettaprojects

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Comments
Mike Magri(on 29/6/09)
I admit that i still have some little reservations on some of the other projects as i need to be more informed of the details..

But an OPEN AIR THEATRE....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NOOOOOOO WAYYYYYYYY... The idea itself already spells.... MONEY DOWN THE DRAIN..... WASTE OF VALUABLE TAXPAYERS` MONEY.......

GET ADVICE FROM JOSEPH CALLEJA.. AND THE LIKES.. I AM SURE THAT THEY WILL COME UP WITH A BETTER IDEA.....


Simonide Rancati Chapelle(on 28/6/09)Toscanini always refused to conduct in open air theatres: ''all'aperto si gioca a bocce, non si fa della musica''.
Fireworks, overhead noise, cold, rain and mosquito bites are great discomforts during a show!
If we want this theatre to be used also in the winter it must have a roof.


Jonathan Cini(on 28/6/09)This design is a complete insult to the Royal Opera House ruins. The design is based on the modernist style and I suggest any prospective Prime Minister after 2013 to secure that the first pledge in his party's electoral manifesto will be to demolish Piano's nightmare within a week. Any prospective candidate for the next general election who promises this to me will gain my number one preference.
God, and Architect Barry, please forgive us.



R Grima(on 28/6/09)@Hector Mamo

You are splitting hairs. I have made no comment on the actual Architecture. My criticism is solely to do with the practicalities and comfort of the Open Air Theatre. I think they are justified. The choice is sitting in the wet cold or sweating and being bitten . The distractions of festa's ,fireworks,traffic and overhead noise,nightly distractions to residents(not the occasional festa or band march) seem to be forgotten in your haste to praise.What is being proposed is not much different to what was done a year or so ago by a local well known Architect with a name akin to yours as a temporary measure.

You cannot by any stretch of the imagination call this a National Theatre. By the way I am all for modern good Architecture and not for recreating what was there before. That is the past and must stay that way ,but I certainly expected something at least comfortable ,the better to enjoy what is on offer. This proposal does not fit the bill.




Chris Ebejer(on 28/6/09)And should these pseudo modernist intellectuals are now pleased with an odious scaffolding supporting some kind of metal partitioning erected over just 60 years old demolished building.

And where is the City gate design? Should now we call this breach a contemporary design? It’s the same case of the Emperor’s new clothes story.

These proposals are nothing but a sign of a decadent society that accepts everything without good taste and a lack of aesthetics. Beauty is a joy forever.

I shall never and cannot express the approval and appreciation for this project as for many cultural lovers; this is a sin against our culture and an insult to Valletta. A project like this is the kind to be found in Beijing or Malaysia but not in a European Valletta.


Chris Ebejer(on 28/6/09)This project shall be listed in history as the Piano’s Paprata!
Is it possible that there are many who still do believe, if someone is famous so he’s the right person? I would have given Piano a chance yes, designing the airport or Tignie, but not Valletta.

And I didn’t attend for this presentation yesterday although I was invited as a matter of fact that I whole heartedly disagrees and cannot applaud the idea of leaving those brutal flats and erecting a parliament at the entrance of a Noble city.

And all those who claimed that Barry’s neo classical architecture didn’t compliment with Valletta, Ghandhom il-wicc issa jghidu li dan il-binja imtajra hija kompatibbli?!




Anthony A.Mifsud(on 28/6/09)Looking terribly good, I have one question to ask " Should we say, a play is on in peak summer, and we start poppinig patterds, we stop the play? "

Dr. Piano we don't have the area that allow such works.

Should it rain, where will we run to?

Should an Air Craft pass overhead, that we can divert!!

I am lost please advise

Toni




J.Borg(on 28/6/09)Yes it seems nice as a project.
But, as we know we are truly masters in maintanance and upkeeping of our projetcs.
Being an open air theathre, has care and costs been taken into account into the upkeeping and maintance of the theathre.
What type of seating is going to be used. Seats in cloth covering for me are out of the question because of rain and plastic seating isn't durable due to the heavy sunshine these will be getting.
So, what will be the cost in maintaing seating as good as it will be when the project is ready.
Couldn't some sort of transparent covering be made.
Also, Malta as many i think know is a dusty place, so has care been taken in cost and maintance is keeping the place an apparatus dust free.
I think that these are questions which have to be answered and not just simply reply we will see after......
iCocker(on 28/6/09)I have seen many architectural places in this these having a relic and a functional minimal and modern design combined together, giving the idea of a roman amphitheatre and a sense of openese to the ambience, apart from the stone their is light that make an architecture imposing ... so please we need to get away with these ideas of boroque and neoclassic we Maltese are in love with! It's an evolvement and a memorial and reminder to the scar WW2 left to our island!

As a design student I comply ...
R Grima(on 28/6/09)All those so called theatres are either badly equipped with a stage meant for conferences (MCC),too small and unheated (Manoel) or even smaller with limited seating in the round(St .James.

WE do not have a decent Theatre in Malta. I was rather hoping this would be the one,but @Hector Mamo

instead we got an open air place guaranteed to annoy the resident's by it's noise whilst the audience either shiver or sweat trying to listen to some play or orchestra who in turn are competing with traffic noise,or some festa's fireworks. Does Mr Piano really know our culture well?.Shouldn't someone have told him?. I don't even go to the Manoel because it's freezing in Winter, let alone go to this place on a cold wet winter's night to freeze. If you sit somewhere for 2/3 hours with very little movement..the cold gets to you,you know.I would have thought that's elementary.
Hector Mamo(on 28/6/09)@ R Grima

Ghal performances tax-xitwa ghandna diga diversi postijiet fejn jistghu isiru. Biex insemmi tnejn fil-belt stess, Manoel theatre, St.James u Dar Mediterran. Tajjeb li jkollna xi haga differenti u versatili ghas-sajf.

jien dilettant tat-teatru u anke tal-opra. Immur nara diversi xoghlijiet li jittellghu u nista nassigurak li ma nkunu follol fit-teatru. Tajjeb li t-teatru rjal ikun b'tali mod li jkun jista jinbidel b'hafna modi differenti


R Grima(on 28/6/09)@Pauline Borg

Does all this happen while we are wearing our thermal underwear and our ski clothes whilst shielding our face from the rain,sitting on a wet seat on a November/December evening, or on a blamy Summers night striped to the hilt busy swatting the mosquitoes?
Sandro Zahra(on 28/6/09)i do not agree with those suggesting to rebuild the opera house ..... if so i would suggest to rebuild the aubergue that once stood instead of the opera house which will be more suited with the surrounding buildings.

My point that we have to keep the current buildings together with their history and re-design them according to today's building style - ie Mr Piano's design in my opinion are right since they reflect both the past and the present.


Pauline Borg(on 28/6/09)

I suggest to all of you that you go and visit the exhibition at the Museum of Archeaolgy - it is something which you have experience and see the theatre and its features - this picture is too static for you to understand - the sides of the theatre will dub as a projector screen and at the exhibition you can see the effect that these will create so before you start with your lame comments I suggest that you go and have a look....
Rocco Cauchi(on 28/6/09)A Parliament on stilts, a quasi-theatre with steel pole upshots, a gateless breech in the walls? It seems so crude and begs a simple question: given the foreign avant-garde choice, why not save money and shut down the Faculty of Architecture altogether?
Let's remember one thing: temporary structures or architectural embellishments have never found good ground with our authorities once the utilitarian aspect has been fulfilled. Witness the still unspurting water from 2 conceived fountains at City Gate, 2 reliefs of Pius V and GM La Valette on the outlooking facade, the niches at the St John Annex in Merchants Street - all dating from the sixties.
That is why I squirm when I hear of movable/ replaceable parts in our architecture, be it the planned para-theatre or the new Palace Square arrangements. Thinking too big, especially on the work we can load onto our manual workers, is a major problem which our sitting, couchy administrators need to address.
Besides, I do not envision the nice jablo plans as of today, but how they will function at a time when electricity fails (lift, CO2) and crowds (and floats?) have to use an 8-mt wide "artistic" breach in the wall.


C. Schembri(on 28/6/09)As a Design Student myself, I cannot but LIKE he designs Mr. Piano has developed.

Well Done! Malta finally gets what it Deserves!


Joseph Saliba(on 28/6/09)
this is truly a design that befits the city of Valletta in the 21st century - it is a state-of-the-art theatre that respects the past and treats it as a living monument to culture...it will represent the soul of valletta and the functionality and versality of the space will enure that it can be enjoyed by the population at large - its walls which will dub as projection space will ensure something magical and unique - finally Malta has its performing space which it deserves in its capital city...thumbs up
Franco Farrugia(on 28/6/09)Gostibus, gostibus. What seems inspirational and out-of-this-world to some people, appears dull and inappropriate to others. Let's not forget that the great majority of the people (as everywhere else in the world) are artistically illiterate and they shouldn't be blamed for having different tastes from Piano. I - and I'm sure most Maltese - would have been a lot happier to see different ideas from both local and foreign architects in an international design competition. Now it seems that the die has been cast and people's comments and ideas about the planned project are all a waste of time,


paul mizzi(on 28/6/09)"The site was also too small to be used as a Parliament or a modern opera house."

I recall Joseph Calleja saying that the site could contain all the requirements for an opera house!!
This structure will forever keep the debate open as to when the theatre is rebuilt to its former glory. Thumbs up! At least our sons could still rethink to do it properly one day!


James De Giorgio(on 28/6/09)Why not rebuild the Opera House retaining it's former facade while still keeping it roofless? The iron structure thing might look hideously shabby with time.

Hondoq Ir-Rummien should not be turned into a Xlendi

"Hondoq Ir-Rummien should not be turned into a Xlendi - its image identity should be retained and protected,” a third year architecture student emphasised.

The student was outlining a planning brief through which the abandoned desalinisation plant at Hondoq Ir-Rummien could be turned into a youth hostel, hosting both local and foreign students carrying out research in Gozo....


More articles outlining the recent situation about Hondoq Ir-Rummien:

http://www.maltastar.com/pages/ms09dart.asp?a=1348
http://www.maltastar.com/pages/ms09dart.asp?a=1216
http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=85000
http://gozonews.com/letters/what-hope-is-there-for-an-eco-island-concept/
http://environment.maltastar.com/pages/ms09dart.asp?a=1161
http://gozonews.com/featured/storm-damage-at-ta%e2%80%99-gordan-and-hondoq-bay/
http://gozonews.com/letters/a-bad-workman-always-blames-his-tools/
http://gozonews.com/featured/hondoq-an-accident-just-waiting-to-happen/

Wiping those blotches off the landscape

Petra Bianchi, director, Din l-Art Ħelwa, Valletta

Ever since I can remember, there have been illegal huts and rooms clustered along our coasts and dotted throughout the Maltese countryside, squatting on public land. And ever since I can remember, the general feeling of the public has always been one of helplessness, in the knowledge that the government of the day was not willing to do anything about it.

One result of this is the widespread attitude that the law is not equal for all. Over far too many years, people have written and complained, and environmentalists have campaigned against this state of affairs, but nothing was ever done. The problem was allowed to grow and grow until it reached huge proportions and became increasingly difficult to solve.

Now, over the last few months, some illegal structures on public land have been knocked down and removed, and some squatters have been evicted. After decades of closing both eyes to this abuse, the government has unexpectedly rolled up its sleeves and is taking swift action.

Parliamentary Secretary Jason Azzopardi must know that, on this particular issue, he has the public standing solidly behind him - that is, all those who have not built an illegal structure and are not squatting on public land. I have certainly not yet come across anyone who does not support the government's actions on this front.

However, I also haven't met anyone who has not immediately added, "but what about the rest?" - we all know that there are many, many more, and all over the place.

Now that action has commenced, it must be taken to its right conclusion. The feeling that the law is not equal for all must not be allowed to take on a new shape. This initiative must continue and press on, until all illegal structures on public land have been removed, particularly those scarring our countryside and coastline. It is also important that a use is found for sites which need to be maintained to survive, such as the Għajn Tuffieħa barracks, and that other sites are not only cleared but also rehabilitated, such as the vacated area at Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq.

We must not allow sites to collapse into major eyesores such as the White Rocks site, which was an attractive residential complex in its day but has been destroyed through neglect and vandalism. Another abandoned area left to ruin is Fort Campbell in Selmun.

There are countless issues which still need to be addressed. We have heard for some time that an amendment to the law is to be enacted that will forbid the sanctioning of new illegal buildings, but the step has not yet been taken. I hope that this next move to safeguard our environment will now also be made without further delay.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20081112/letters/wiping-those-blotches-off-the-landscape

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