Some of Malta’s ‘unsung’ architectural icons star in roadshow exhibition

An outdoor photographic roadshow exhibition which celebrates thirty iconic architectural buildings and monuments was launched by the Planning Authority earlier this week.

Under the theme named ‘Unsung’ Architectural Icons, the roadshow exhibition places in the limelight some of Malta’s most important yet at times unappreciated buildings and monuments that were built in the late 19th and the 20th Century.

Most of the buildings are ‘modernist’- a style or philosophy of architecture and design that was introduced between the late 1920s to the 1960s.

It was associated with an analytical approach to the function of buildings, strictly rational use of (often new) materials, structural innovation and the elimination of ornament.

The exhibition includes buildings such as the Art Deco style showroom of Muscat Motors in Gzira, the Rialto Cinema designed in an Art Moderne style by Maltese architect Edwin England Sant Fournier and the Vincenzo Bugeja Institute in Santa Venera designed in a French classical style by well-known architect Emmanuel Luigi Galizia.   

Planning Authority Executive Chairman Johann Buttigieg said, “The objective of this initiative is to raise awareness and an appreciation amongst the public for some of our country’s architectural treasures which at times go unnoticed because they are not the typical palazzo or auberge with grand facades. Here we are speaking about 30 buildings and monuments which are protected by the Authority at Grade 1 or 2, towards the conservation of our heritage.”

Superintendent of Cultural Heritage Joe Magro Conti said, “This is an exhibition giving tribute to the creativity of Maltese architects who fostered the classical principles of Roman writer Vitruvius about architecture and design: proportion, rhythm, symmetry, balance, composition, and harmony. Modernist Architecture based on science and new materials which looks ahead with the interest of discovering new fronts in architecture.”

The roadshow exhibition starts off in Sliema along the promenade (next to The Chalet) until 10 July, then it will move to St Paul’s Bay and will be set up in front of the Malta National Aquarium in Qawra between 22 and 31 July.

Between 10 and 19 August it will be placed in the square in front of the Marsaxlokk Parish Church and will end in St George’s Square in Valletta between 26 August and 4 September.

The photographs were taken by members of the Malta Institute of Professional Photography.

The initiative is partially funded by the European Union.