Palazzina Vincenti will not be demolished: Planning Authority awards Grade 2 status to the property

Palazzina Vincenti in St Julians will not be demolished, this after the Planning Authority (PA) declared the property as a Grade 2 building. Although there is a pending planning application for the demolition of this 20th century building, now, with this protection status given to the property, the development application will need to be radically modified to ensure that the palazzina is restored back to its original glory, which it so well deserves.

As it had promised following the issuing of an Emergency Conservation Order (ECO) last year, the Authority, in consultation and collaboration with the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage (SCH), carried out a thorough assessment of the building to determine the long-term level of protection that the property merits.

The Authority concluded that Palazzina Vincenti has outstanding historical and contextual value and is a pioneering example of modernist architecture that made use of reinforced concrete in a domestic setting in the Maltese Islands. Built in the post- World War II period, the Palazzina was designed and constructed by Perit Gustavo R. Vincenti as his own personal residence and is one of his masterpieces.

It is one of the best modernist examples on the Island, whereby Vincenti’s mastery in playing with circlular and square geometric shapes is taken to an unprecedented dimension with its protruding forms and sculpted spaces.

Set along the St Julians promenade, it reveals the outstanding stature of the well-known entrepreneurial protagonist ‘il-Perit Vincenti’ whose career evolved throughout the during the 20th century.  Palazzina Vincenti served as Vincenti’s residence up until his death, on the 25th of April 1974, where he passed away.

The facades of the two adjacent houses abutting the Palazzina on either side, designed in a muted Modernist idiom are also being scheduled as Grade 2 properties, while their interiors will be scheduled as Grade 3.