5 minute read
VALLETTA\u2019S EYE IN THE SKY
Whether we like it or not, architecture affects us. It narrates our day and is “much more than a space, setting or form”. Dayna Clarke catches up with KONRAD BUHAGIAR, founding partner of architectural firm AP Valletta.
With an impressive back catalogue and no shortage of incredible projects in the pipeline for the local skyline and beyond, the team behind AP Valletta gives us a brief on its work. So how did AP Valletta start?
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To start with, my partners and I were all born during the Cold War. We were brought up reading spy novels and stories about the search for a better life. We wanted to create a better society by providing it with a richer more beautiful architecture. We considered this goal to be one of the most essential tools to achieve a better society.
The first name “Architecture Project” was a manifesto in the Modernist tradition declaring the urgent need for a project to lift Maltese architecture out of the doldrums. But Modernism was on its last legs, and, the isolation of the island has disappeared, the awareness of architecture began to flourish again, hopefully, as well, thanks to our contribution.
This transformed irreversibly the context of the original mission, and we updated our original name to keep up with the lighter and more optimistic times. A fresh, catchy, more ambiguous AP took over. This history, contained in a couple of words, has recently been projected into the future as a result of a rebranding exercise that links the destiny of the office with that of Valletta.
You’ve done a number of world-famous projects in Valletta. What draws you to those commissions? Can you talk us through St John’s Co-Cathedral and what is coming next?
We are very interested in participating in the cultural and social evolution of Valletta. We consider this the crucible of our identity, where local traditions and beliefs overlap with foreign influence.
The evolution of the spirit of the country happens here in a fascinating, uninterrupted continuity that, having worked on innumerable historic buildings, we are familiar with and wish to contribute to. As a result of our record of pulling many old buildings out of oblivion and dusting them back to life, we are in a position today to attract the type of commissions we desire.
The extension of St John’s Co-Cathedral Museum has its seed in the need to house the 29 Flemish tapestries, designed by Rubens, that form part of the collection of the church. Having been created in the first place as a marketing tool to counter the onslaught of the Reformation, these tapestries are an important artefact of the Baroque Period and consolidate Malta’s role as a centre of the Christian faith.
How do you approach your projects?
We try to approach every project with respect, whether it is restoration and extension projects involving old buildings or new structures built ex-nouveau. The qualities of pre-existing structures need to be understood, appreciated and married with the program of the project itself. The ambitions and requirements of the client, act as the inspiration of the new creation.
Each project is, for us, a new departure. The experience of decades of work and research has an important role to play and inevitably inform the final product. We steer away from stylistic and trends and formal short-cuts.
Were there any particular influences early in your career?
Many influences shaped our first buildings and moulded our original philosophy. The work of Leon Battista Alberti impressed upon us the magic achieved by proportion and harmonious composition; John Ruskin helped us observe the world and analyse the ineffable qualities of architectural beauty;
Le Corbusier’s visions for the modern world are contained in all of our projects; Mies’ fluidity of space and Renzo Piano’s attention to construction integrity and detail; Tadao Ando’s material poetry and Siza’s play with scale. The list is infinite.
What are common themes in your work?
Every project is tackled independently of its predecessors. AP Valletta is the product of the convergence of several tasks which were commissioned over the years contributing to the multitude of disciplines required to achieve the goals envisioned by the client. →
Each project tackled contains a collection of ideas, some tried and tested. Other ideas may be new and unprompted, whose unorthodox overlap and the unsettling combination is what brings the product to life.
Although solutions may seem simple, the origins of each project are complex, articulated and unstable; the only certain conclusion that emerges from this research is the ineffable quality of architecture. We have the ambition to evoke, in varying ways, a common sense of architecture as a generator of real life, not only the backdrop to events. Architecture and design, for us, are more than space, setting, context and form.
Are you concerned with how your designs age or date?
Yes, very concerned. The thing that makes us most proud is when, in the space of 20 years, our projects seem still fresh. Our ambition is that a building we have just finished looks at the onset, as if it had always stood there, blending naturally with its context and surroundings. Time, on the other hand we hope, will bestow on the building the vigour of youth and it will begin to look younger, a bit like Benjamin Button!
What have you seen on recent travels that inspires you?
Yesterday I went to see the exhibition at the Royal Academy of Michelangelo’s drawings in the Royal Collection (UK) accompanied by video installations by Bill Viola. Michelangelo was obsessed with the phenomenon of the soul leaving the body. Viola developed techniques that express interiority and spirituality and the ineffable quality of birth, death and the passage of time. ‘Birth, Death, Rebirth’ is a moving experience that remains impressed on the mind long after leaving the building. It suggests, remotely and unintentionally, that the long life that a building is invested with is a luxury and that ignoring this quality by focusing only on today’s needs is a sin.
What are some of the opportunities and challenges your team faces at present?
The older one gets, the more difficult it is to renew oneself, but thanks to the great team of smart and passionate young architects that work at the office, this onerous task is actually a pleasure.
Our reputation provides us with great opportunities: the possibility, in particular, of attracting the type of meaningful projects we love. The challenge always is to rise to the occasion, to create something relevant and new and to overcome the danger of repeating oneself, of succumbing to the pressure of mediocrity – which, like gravity, is Man’s worst enemy.
What advice would you give to young designers starting out today?
It is true that we live in a liquid world where everything, including architecture, is a disposable commodity that is transient and has a short life span. However, I am sure what is really good will survive. Always think of what you are leaving behind and spare no effort to turn it into a pleasure for all those who will come after us.
What’s next for AP Valletta?
The challenge of saving St Paul’s Anglican Cathedral belfry and Valletta’s skyline, an exciting plan for a new marina in Bali, and a book called “The Founding Myths of Architecture” will be published in London this autumn.
