Last Updated on Wednesday, 20 November, 2024 at 2:40 pm by Andre Camilleri
AP Valletta has been awarded the ‘Judge Maurice Caruana Curran Award’ in the XVIII Architectural Heritage Awards.
The award is named after the founder of Din l-Art Ħelwa, which next year celebrates its 60th anniversary with a comprehensive list of events.
The awards, sponsored by Belair Property, were held at Palazzo de la Salle in Valletta, in the presence of Minister for the National Heritage, the Arts and Local Government Owen Bonnici.
The competition was founded by former executive president Martin Scicluna, who was also present for the awards. This long-standing initiative, carried out with the support of the Kamra tal-Periti, motivates and inspires architectural best practice with particularreference to our cultural built heritage and natural environment; it is unique in that the jury panel visits each of the project submissions to evaluate them.
In his speech, while highlighting the significance and vulnerability of Malta’s rich cultural heritage and the work carried out by Din l-Art Ħelwa, its executive president Patrick Calleja said: “Sadly, some architects, together with the very State apparatus – the Planning Authority – that was ostensibly set up to protect our heritage, are also complicit in the ruination occurring around us. But today we are here to acknowledge, celebrate and salute… not just the award winners but the projects, the architects, the engineers, contractors, the craftspeople, the volunteers and the patrons, who have contributed to the preservation and protection of our cultural identity.”
The winners of the three categories were:
Regeneration of an area: The Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre and Nature Park, submitted by Perit Ruben Paul Borg.
Adaptation of historical buildings to new uses: Dar San Rokku, Żebbuġ, submitted by Valentino Architects
Restoration and/or conservation of buildings: St Paul’s Anglican Pro-Cathedral Tower, submitted by AP Valletta.
Commendations were also issued to Naxxar Town House, submitted by AP Valletta in the second category, and to Villa Hay and the Gardener’s Cottage at Villa Frere, Pieta’, submitted by the Friends of Villa Frere in the third.
The prizes were presented by the Commissioner for Voluntary Organisations Jesmond Saliba, who announced that there was bipartisan agreement on a reform of the voluntary sector, one of the aims of which was to define ‘social purpose’.
This year’s jury comprised Ann Dingli, Joanne Spiteri Staines, Godwin Vella and Andrea Bianco.
In their comments, they praised the first category winner, saying that over the course of their deliberations, they defined ‘regeneration’ as a “development that activates existing natural or built assets respectfully, with a mindful aim to add new purpose, but not at the expense of what came before”.
With regard to the second category, they said that as part of the move towards a waste-less mode of building, the projects were a “tonic to the long-standing supremacy of new build” in what should become the “default development approach”.
And for the third category, the judges said the projects “spotlighted the added parameter of budget constraints, shedding stronger light on the barriers to the material preservation of heritage fabric”.
