Matthew Axiak, Karen Muscat and Nadine Zammit

A garden sketchbook VILLA FRERE

AN URBAN GARDEN

Observations by architecture students

Compiled by Matthew Axiak, Karen Muscat and Nadine Zammit

Humanity is interdependently linked to the environment in which we live. Between October and December 2021, some University of Malta architecture students visited a number of sites which are representative of the various built and natural landscapes present in the Maltese Islands.

One of these visits was to the Villa Frere gardens in Gwardamanġa. This article features some key observations along with a number of sketches made by final-year Master of Architecture students during this visit. Tucked away near the grounds of St Luke’s Hospital, Villa Frere is a unique green lung within an otherwise heavily-urbanised area.

Established in the nineteenth century by the English diplomat and scholar John Hookham Frere (1769–1846), the villa’s neoclassical terraced garden gradually developed into one of Malta’s most extensive and appealing landscaped places.

VIEW OF VILLA FRERE’S TERRACED GARDENS

Sketch by Nadine Zammit

The gardens were designed in a terraced style to allow for incremental exploration of the different areas. They were constructed with cisterns, adequate drainage techniques and circulation systems. The sketch shows the context of the gardens with its surrounding buildings in the background, namely the Malta Enterprise offices and St Luke’s Hospital.

t UPPER GARDENS AND ENCLOSURES

AT THE PERIPHERY

Sketch by Nadine Zammit

In the background one can see the Tempietto, which was once part of the Villa Frere gardens. It is now surrounded by a parking area and has been completely disconnected from the main gardens.

UNSIGHTLY VISTAS AS SEEN FROM

THE VISITOR’S CENTRE u

Sketch by Nadine Zammit

The blatant arrogance in the construction industry can be observed in the gardens of Villa Frere where the surrounding landscape has been altered beyond repair. Visible from the estate grounds are the numerous unsightly building blocks densely surrounding the site and blocking almost all the vistas it was once designed to have.

t BENCH AND LUSH GARDENS

Sketch by Karen Muscat

When we visited, the gardens were quite lush and the air was filled with fragrant scents, showing a wonderful sign of life. Being there, it seems as though you are in another dimension where time slows down.

t GARDENER’S COTTAGE

Sketch by Samuel Ciantar

Predating Villa Frere itself, the cottage adds some vernacular character to the garden, offering a glimpse into what it might have been originally prior to being formalised into a landscaped garden.

VIEW TOWARDS THE MSIDA –

TA’ XBIEX URBAN AREA u

Sketch by Matthew Grech

Until the mid-twentieth century this would have been a countryside vista, while today it has been replaced by a sea of apartment blocks and other buildings. t ENTRANCE TO VILLA FRERE, BELVEDERE

AND NEIGHBOURING SCHOOL

Sketch by Francesca Cassar

Nature has created a romantic patina of time on the overgrown façade leading to the entrance. This façade tells a completely different story from the neighbouring buildings forming part of St Luke’s Hospital. The Japanese gardens that were part of the original garden complex have been replaced by a primary school; apart from diminishing the botanical garden, this also impacted the garden’s primary intention of overlooking the sea, specifically Floriana and the coast of Pietà.

NEIGHBOURING DEVELOPMENT u

Sketch by Francesca Cassar

Monstrous developments have overcrowded the garden’s surroundings, diminishing the relationship between Villa Frere, the surrounding hills and the coastal environment. Becoming completely abandoned from the once lush landscape, the gardens highly contrast with recent developments.

t LOOKING UP TOWARDS THE ROYAL GAZEBO

Sketch by Matthew Axiak

Framed by trees, plants and terraces, neo-classical architectural features such as this gazebo add a sense of monumentality and order to the place.

DETAILS FROM VILLA FRERE u

Sketch by Karen Muscat

The garden has numerous layers; not just the steps and topographical landscape, but also the manner in which vegetation and decoration are combined. Every look one takes is impregnated with numerous details that seem to draw one’s gaze from one to another, and another, exposing the garden’s many intricacies.

t PASSAGEWAY LEADING TO SINKHOLE

Sketch by Nadine Zammit

An entrance created to experience the water catchment which resulted from a doline which was found during the construction of the vegetable garden. The sketch also shows the main staircase on the left hand side leading to the Royal Gazebo.

Today only a vestige of what was once a much larger garden still survives, and it illustrates people’s changing relation to nature over time. Villa Frere’s gardens bring up a dialogue of the duality between the neglect and maintenance of our country’s heritage, while contemporary proposals which threaten its context illustrate conflicting private and public interests. The progress made by Friends of Villa Frere volunteers in recent years highlights how a place can be revived when wellbeing and heritage values are prioritised. n

Acknowledgement: Thanks to the lecturers of AUD5241 (Landscape and Building), Antoine Gatt, Avertano Role’ and Antonio Mollicone – and to Fernando Mifsud of Friends of Villa Frere.

All sketches and notes were produced for the study unit AUD5241: Landscape and Building, at the University of Malta. All the contributors were second-year Master of Architecture students at the University of Malta in 2021–2022, focusing on Architectural Design, Conservation Studies or Urban Design.