An Unexpected Atlas of Valletta

This atlas was produced during the ‘Unexpected Atlas of Valletta’ workshop at the European Architecture Students Assembly in Malta, 2015.

Participants: Sophia Bannert (England) Antoine Basil (France) Aoife Flynn (Ireland) Nick Green (Scotland) Mélusine Le Brun (France) Andjela Markovic (Montenegro) Daisy Kinahan Murphy (Ireland) Matilde Norsker (Denmark) Danijela Pavicic (Bosnia & Herzegovina) Ixchel Ayes Rivera (Honduras) Jerome Wren (Scotland) Maryia Zakharava (Belarus) Tutors: Jolein Bergers (Belgium) Sofie Devriendt (Belgium) Special thanks go out to the whole EASA Links team, in particular Sean and Elaine, Tom Van Malderen and Guillaume Dreyfuss at Architecture Project, and the National Library of Malta.

(*) An atlas is a collection of maps often including illustrations or graphic analyses; it is typically a map of Earth or a region of Earth.

Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats.

In the summer of 2015, twelve students of architecture and urbanism produced a series of subjective mappings of Valletta, the capital of Malta, in which an alternative view upon the city was developed. These mappings resulted in an ‘Unexpected Atlas of Valletta’, a more human, unconventional and ‘honest’ atlas, that serves as an alternative for the various (online) maps available that might give an insight, though never a true understanding.

Personal involvement was the starting point: the students tried to understand the city by observing and drawing it from close by. These drawings served as a first reading of the urban fabric and its activities.

In a second phase, the cultural identity of Valletta was further investigated by making more detailed mappings of subjects akin to the participants’ own interests.

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Even though this choice of investigation was personal and subjective, the bundling of these observations is less random than initially presumed. Each individual story in the atlas is indispensable in its own right, because the creators would not have selected them otherwise. Together, they form an ‘Unexpected Atlas of Valletta’, which is coherent in its own way.

This atlas is an attempt to make a meaningful contribution to the theme of EASA Links in a creative, sensitive, yet critical way.

The uncommon connections of the visual inventories and maps made by participants discovering the city for the first time, reveal things that usually remain invisible in traditional maps. In the Unexpected Atlas, mapping everyday city life suddenly takes on new meanings. It serves as a response to the increasing simplification of cartography, and wishes to show the complex reality that lies beyond the contemporary maps we know.

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Ixchel (Honduras)

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Daisy & Aoife (Dublin)

Matilde (Copenhagen)

Nick (Chester)

Jerome (London) Sophia (Uckfield) Antoine (Bagnolet)

Mariya (Belarus)

Jolein (Antwerp) Sofie (Brussels) Melusine (Paris)

Danijela (Banja Luka) Andjela (Podgorica)

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Table of contents

The mobile view p. 13

observations per neighbourhood

The observational map of Valletta

p. 15 p. 55

The perspective view p. 57

The detailed view

observations per viewpoint The representative map of Valletta

‘Tunnels’ - Sophia Bannert

‘Textures of the city’ - Antoine Basil

‘Topography‘ - Aoife Flynn & Matilde Norsker

‘Brittish things ’ - Nick Green

‘Shopfronts’ - Daisy Kinahan Murphy

‘Tresholds‘ - Mélusine Le Brun ‘Trees’ - Danijela Pavicic

‘Religion‘ - Ixchel Ayes Rivera ‘People’ - Jerome Wren

‘Balconies’ - Maryia Zakharava

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p. 59 p. 95 p. 97 p. 100 p. 106 p. 1 12 p. 114 p. 120 p. 128 p. 130 p. 136 p. 140 p. 146

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the mobile view During the first days of the workshop, the participants tried to get a first impression and understanding of Valletta by mapping different areas of the city in smaller teams. A limited time span forced them to observe, draw and move around quickly.

There was no time for second thoughts and only the most eyecatching elements and fragments could be registered. Each duo of participants scanned a number of blocks of the Vallettan grid. At the end of this chapter, the different personal observations are collected in one map which covers the whole grid.

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G1 F1 E1

D1

G2

C1

F2

B1

E2

A1

D2 C2 B2 A2

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A1

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A1

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b1

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D1

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the PERSPECTIVE view In a second phase, the view from a distance allows us to make the transition from an accumulation of fragments to a more coherent view on the city. Whereas the mobile view focused on collecting as much impressions as possible, in this part the intent was to figure out how all of these aspects fit together to form the city. Multiple viewpoints were chosen to produce a better understanding of the city as a whole.

The drawings are organised per viewpoint, so as to show how focuses change depending on the person drawing the perspective. Together these viewpoints provide a more complete, overall insight on Valletta. This new insight is translated and assembled into a new skewed perspective, to be found at the end of this chapter.

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the DETAILED view In a third phase, the cultural identity of Valletta was further investigated by making more detailed mappings of themes close to the participants’ hearts. They were given the time to make a more detailed observation of a specific element or feature of the city. In this chapter you will find a variety of topics, categorised per observer.

Even though they appear to be randomly chosen, together they tell a coherent and complex story about Valletta.

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‘tunnels’ Sophia Bannert

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‘TEXTURES OF THE CITY’ Antoine Basile

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‘TOPOGRAPHY’ Aoife Flynn & Matilde Norsker

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‘BRITISH THINGS’ Nick Green

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‘Shopfronts’ Daisy Kinahan Murphy

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‘tresholds’ Mélusine Le Brun

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‘trees’ Danijela Pavicic

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‘religion’ Ixchel Ayes Rivera

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‘people’ Jerome Wren

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‘balconies’ Maryia Zakharava

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