Book casts new light on St Julian’s threatened modernist building

Plans for the demolition of the iconic Palazzina Vincenti on the St Julian’s promenade to make way for a bland 14-storey hotel by hotelier Carlo Stivala and designed by architect Robert Musumeci, were presented last year and resubmitted in October.

But in a setback for the developers on Tuesday, the Planning Authority decided to extend an emergency conservation first issued last year, granting temporary protection to Palazzina Vincenti.

This means that Palazzina Vincenti in St Julian’s is still considered to be “heritage at risk” and will be protected from demolition for another year until the PA determines what level of long-term protection it merits.

The decision coincided with the publication of a new book by Kite Group and authored by architect David Ellul, which gives plenty of reasons why the building should be granted long-term protection.

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 building is described as one of 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 postwar reconstruction.

The book makes no reference to the latest plans to demolish the building but its publication could not have been more “timely”, as noted by architect Edward Said who in his introduction to the book refers to “rapid and radical changes” in the country’s built environment which “would horrify Perit Vincenti”.

In his book David Ellul seeks to redress the injustice deeply felt by Vincenti’s son Hiliare “that no national recognition has been given to his father as an influential architect who had an impact on Malta’s historical and architectural development.”

The book casts a light on the life of developer and prolific architect Gustave Vincenti, in the context of the international influences which shaped his vision. He not only visited the British Empire exhibition at Wembley in 1924 but was also inspired by the high-rise buildings being developed in the USA, as demonstrated by his personal archives which include hanging prints of various buildings in New York.

Gustave Vincenti and his wife Maria Stella at home at Palazzina Vincenti

One of a kind: a developer with a sense of aesthetics

Vincenti was not just a brilliant architect but also an entrepreneur who could smell a business opportunity as he did in 1925 when he bought land between Main Street and (later) Borg Olivier Street in St Julian’s for the development of nine houses. He also set his eyes on plots of land being sold in Sliema. But unlike modern developers who show little concern for aesthetics, Vincenti used his property investments to push architectural boundaries.

Initially he did so by experimenting with art nouveau and intertwining it with Maltese traditional elements, including the closed window balcony. One such example is an entire row of townhouses in Dingli Street built and sold by Vincenti in 1926.

As the architect of his own buildings, some of which he kept for himself, Vincenti was clearly his own master, something which gave him the freedom to experiment with new styles and technology, particularly in the houses he designed for himself, namely the Art Deco summer house in St Julian’s, his residence in Harper Lane in Floriana, where he also sought permission to build a bomb-proof shelter, and ultimately Palazzina Vincenti.

According to Ellul, Vincenti “did not simply prioritise maximizing the income of a project but he also focused on good design and high-quality living.”

Vincenti was also an opportunist in seeking business deals coming his way and in submitting bids on public land released by the colonial authorities. In fact his greatest residential and commercial project was Vincenti Buildings, built on the site of the old bakeries in Strait Street, Valletta, a piece of history which was demolished to enable the development of six plots leased by tender by the colonial government for £1,008 per annum in 1935.

Knowing how difficult it was to construct the building in four years as dictated by tender conditions, he engineered “a mechanical pulley system” to hoist construction material up six floors.

He then set a number of conditions on his tenants, one of which stipulated that tenants should not allow their children “to play and run about the staircases or halls” or obstructing the “stairs or halls.”

The project was built over four years at the cost of £30,000, and can be considered as one of the largest private projects in the first part of the twentieth century.

A shot of the interior of Palazzina Vincennti

A breakthrough towards modernism

And while Vincenti’s summer house in St Julian’s represented the “dawn of Art Nouveau” in Malta, Palazzina Vincenti represented a “breakthrough towards modernism.”

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 book, which includes photos documenting the interior of the house, also sheds light on the “spacious interior” which complements Vincenti’s affluent status in Maltese society.

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

The book also includes photos of an underground tunnel linking Palazzina Vincenti to a seaside pier across the road.