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Il-Ministru Charles Buhagiar jinawgura Seminar dwar il-Belt Valletta
PR2109
06/12/1996
06/12/1996
Waqt l-inawgurazzjoni tas-Seminar Valletta 2000, il-Ministru ghax-Xoghlijiet Pubblici u Kostruzzjoni, il-Perit Charles Buhagiar qal li diga bdew diskussjonijiet serji ma' l-Universita ta' Malta dwar programmi edukattivi fil-qasam tal-Bini u Kostruzzjoni.
Dan li gej huwa d-diskors li l-Ministru Buhagiar ghamel f'din l-okkazjoni.
| SPEECH BY THE HON. MINISTER CHARLES BUHAGIAR AT THE | INAUGURATION OF THE VALLETTA 2000 INTERNATIONAL WORKSHOP |
| It is my pleasure to inaugurate this important workshop on Valletta | - a theme in which I am very interested at this initial phase of my assuming Ministerial responsibility for the rehabilitation of our capital city built by the Knights in the late 18th century. |
| I always believed that a proper understanding of the architectural | fabric of this fine fortress-town in the heart of the Mediterranean is vital to any efforts that we can devise to conserve it for posterity for the enjoyment of those who come after us. This is particularly important in view of the fact that the Baroque town plan of Valletta represents a block achievement of the military Engineer Francesco Lapparelli so that any attempts by people of our time to alter this type of plan, to introduce new elements of another style, can easily lead to the breaking up of its aesthetic backbone, as a famous architectural critic has once said (Louis Mumford). Judging by the contents of the programme of this workshop, it is clear that one can detect a praiseworthy consciousness of the delicate nature of any building intervention in Valletta. As a matter of fact, this workshop comes at an important point in time when my Ministry is determined to do everything possible to put into action an effective strategy for the rehabilitation of Valletta, Cottonera and Mdina aimed at achieving optimum result in the shortest possible time. |
| My government strongly believes that such a strategy needs to be | focused on the needs of the individual and, in particular the needs of the residents living in this historic town. |
| For this reason our strategy could not be based solely on the | restoration of old historic buildings but will endeavour to inject new economic activity such that the quality of life of the residents can be improved. Our intervention in the field of restoration will be mainly concerned with the restoration of historic buildings which are in a bad state of repair, such as the Auberge de Baviere, and on the removal of eyesores as the elevated passageway over Strait Street which joins the Law Courts to the Annexe. Works on both these new projects are already in hand. |
| In the case of Valletta which is often referred as the city built | by gentlemen for gentlemen, which has however been reduced to a city built by gentlemen for cars, our strategy will concentrate on improving movement within the city - both vehicular as well as pedestrian. We intend to finalize the transport plan for Valletta/Floriana so that measures can be taken to ensure that our streets and beautiful squares are returned to their rightful users - the people. |
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| There are, perhaps, three basic observations, which I would like to | express on the occasion of the inauguration of this workshop. The first observation concerns the theme of Valletta as an urban model, reflecting the application of a geometric order of streets and building blocks which originally had the function of classifying and guiding all those Baroque architects involved in building interventions in the city. It is hoped that this historic urban order will continue playing this role as we approach the year 2000 hence, I understand, the choice of the title of the workshop Valletta 2000. The second observation concerns the theme of Valletta as a fortified town, reflecting the need of effectively re-using and focusing of the splendid fortification network of the town without destroying the process their powerful image having tremendous heritage and tourism value. I am happy to note in this respect that four experts at this conference will be dealing with the philosophy and aesthetics of the fortifications. The third and final observation I want to make concerns Valletta's role as a work laboratory, as a focus of creative architectural activity involving students of architecture from the Architectural and Engineering Faculties of Malta and Udine who are certainly rising up to the challenges of the 21st century agenda in so far as conserving our Baroque Heritage is concerned. |
| These students and their tutors certainly deserve my encouragement | and support, particularly so because of the difficult nature of their task. |
| In conclusion I would like to congratulate all the participants of | the Valletta Workshop for making this event possible, particularly our distinguished guests from Udine, Padova and Grenoble who will be, together with the Maltese experts, contributing their extensive knowledge on the subject to make this workshop the success that it deserves to be. In this respect, I must say that I am aware of the great efforts of organisation that have been made by the Vice-Rector for International Affairs of the University of Udine, Prof Mauro Bertagnin, and of my friend Denis De Lucca, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at the university of Malta. I must add that I have known Mr. De Lucca for many years during which period we have collaborated on a magazine called Atrium which dealt with Building and Architecture in the Mediterranean context. Atrium used to provide a forum in which problems related to the Building Industry as well as to the Building Form were dealt with in a Mediterranean environment. Today Mr. De Lucca is closely collaborating with my Ministry in organising various educational programmes and activities designed to improve the quality of human interventions in the built environment of this small island situated in the heart of the Mediterranean. |
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