‘Give Freedom Square back to the public’ – Kamra tal-Periti

On World Architecture Day, the Chamber of Architects (Kamra tal-Periti) has called for Freedom Square to be returned to the public.

“If one intervention in Malta’s public space symbolically embodies the disregard, verging on contempt, with which architecture and the work of architects is generally held, it is the blight around Freedom Square upon which the parliament building designed by Renzo Piano stands,” KtP said in a statement.

The theme of this year’s World Architecture Day, celebrated every first Monday of October across the world, is ‘Empowering the next generation to participate in urban design’.

Referring to Valletta’s Freedom Square, KtP said, “The fact that such ignominy is carried out at the behest of the highest democratic institution in the country, just underscores the dire state of architecture and the long road towards achieving the cultural sensibilities and basic educational standards necessary to truly begin to understand and address the issues surrounding quality of public space and general wellbeing.”

Renzo Piano’s parliament building and the surrounding urban space were designed to promote transparency in democratic processes. However, the permanently installed barriers erected around this building completely reverse the architect’s intent and instead create a physical separation between the electors and the elected, a gap that the design sought to eradicate, KtP added.

“The irony of this situation is further compounded by the fact that the institution that is entrusted by the Constitution to enact the laws of the land, is brazenly breaching several provisions of the same laws its members have passed inside that very building.”

KtP called on all responsible public institutions, starting with the Speaker of the House and including the Planning Authority, Lands Authority, and Grand Harbour Regeneration Corporation, among many others, to uphold their legal obligations and return Freedom Square to the public.