Palazzina Vincenti saved from demolition

Carlo Stivala’s application to knock down Palazzina Vincenti to replace it with a 14-storey hotel will have to be “radically modified” says the Planning Authority.

The Planning Authority has granted protection to Palazzina Vincent a modernist building in St Julians which has now been added to the list of Grade 2 buildings.

According to prevailing policies, Grade 2 buildings cannot be demolished and alterations to the interior are only allowed if “carried out sensitively and causing the least detriment to the character and architectural homogeneity of the building.”

In its statement, the PA referred to the pending application, submitted by developer Carlo Stivala in 2021 to demolish the building to replace it with a bland 14 storey hotel, warning that "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."

In December 2021, the Planning Authority had issued an Emergency Conservation Order (ECO) to stop any development until a final decision was taken on the scheduling of the building. The ECO was renewed four months ago.

The Authority has now concluded that Palazzina Vincent has outstanding historical and contextual value as a "pioneering example of modernist architecture that made use of reinforced concrete in a domestic setting in the Maltese Islands”.

The facades of two adjacent houses also designed by Vincenti, and built in a muted modernist style, were also granted Grade 2 protection, while their interiors were granted Grade 3 protection which does not exclude demolition.

After the application was submitted, the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage had immediately called for the protection of the Palazzina Vincenti and the two adjacent properties noting their “cultural heritage value that merits scheduling”.

The original request to grant the building protection was made by Edward Said, an architect and lecturer on 20th century Maltese architecture, who back in 2019 warned that being in the development zone the building “is in great danger of being demolished”. 

In a report submitted to the authorities, Said had recommended the highest level of protection (grade 1) for the building and the subterranean tunnel that links the property to the sea.  He had also recommended protection for the interior of the building which is characterised by grand reinforced concrete staircase and waffle-structure ceilings.

In a recently published book architect David Ellul described the building as Gustave Vincenti’s “greatest masterpieces” and “a breakthrough for a new architectural language” which deserves recognition for “its grandeur” and “avant garde aesthetics”, which created a “paradigm” for Malta’s post-war reconstruction.

Built at a cost of £‎31,397 and completed in 1951 on the site of a townhouse demolished in World War II, Palazzina Vincenti in St Julian’s was the chosen abode of one Malta’s leading architects and developers in the 20th century. The salient point of the St Julian’s building in which Vincenti lived the last 25 years of life with his family, is the semi-circular cantilevered terrace at the first floor which is the focal point of the whole composition.

Ellul says Vincenti “exploited Balluta Bay by receding the elevation to create a large terrace”, and through the use of reinforced concrete this terrace freed the space underneath to give the building “lightness and openness”.

The interior of the building includes a foyer supported by reinforced concrete beams spanning from all four sides of the space and a majestic staircase clad in white Carrara marble found in the ground floor hall, which splits into two flights on either side.

An underground tunnel also links Palazzina Vincenti to a seaside pier across the road.