New Parliament design constrained by site – architect

The architects who designed the new Parliament in Valletta were faced with a number of constraints, including the scale and the history of the city, Italian architect Antonio Belvedere said.

Describing the briefing process as "complicated," Belvedere explained that when the renowned Italian architecht Renzo Piano was asked to design the Parliament by the previous administration, the plans had to take into account the historical site and the limited space available. These factors restricted the project's functionality which was instead balanced by maxamising flexibility, Belvedere said.

The €82 million project has come under intense scrutiny and in recent weeks the new Labour government has said that it intends to hold a public consultation process to identify how the new buildings can be best utilised. Prime Minister Joseph Muscat said the project was too small and shed doubts on whether the administration of Parlaiment would be housed in the new building. 

"We had an obligation to pay attention to the site situated in a UNESCO World Heritage Site, expose fortifications and surrounding buildings and make sure that the parliament building is functional," he said, adding that these restrictions impinged on the building's functionality.

Stressing the constraints faced in terms of space, Belvedere said: "The biggest challenge was removing things and not adding things because we wanted to respect the World Heritage Site."

The architect, one of Renzo Piano's lieutenants, was addressing the Parliamentary House Business committee, where he made a visual presentation to the Speaker,  MPs and members of the press.

He added that the design granted flexibility and was self-sustainable in terms of energy generation.

Belvedere said the new Parliament building, split into two blocks, will include offices for the Speaker, the deputy Speaker, the Prime Minister, the leader of the Opposition and 16 ministers.

The current Labour government has 22 Cabinet ministers apart from the Prime Minister, meaning that at present there is not enough space for all Cabinet members.

The Chamber building spread over three floors will also include room for 16 journalists in the pres area on the second floor and a Strangers' Gallery which can seat up to 134 persons.

"There is no space for every MP to have an office, there is only space for 16 minister and parliamentary secretary offices, four committee rooms, no library and a strangers' gallery which can host 140 persons making it smaller than the current one," Leader of the House and Deputy Prime Minister Louis Grech said as he tried to explain the presentation in a nutshell.

In reply to the questions posed by the committee members, CEO of the Grand Harbour Regeneration Corporation overseeing the construction of the building, Chris Paris, said that in order to provide space for all Cabinet members in the administrative block, offices originally designed for other purposes would have to be used as stop-gap ministerial offices. 

Paris added that any alterations to the building would be costly and increase the total cost of the project dramatically.

In his presentation, Belvedere also explained that the ground floor of the Chamber building was designed as a "cultural space."

The second block, also divided in three floors, will house Parliament's administration, which caters for up to 57 staff members. The administrative block will house the Prime Minister's office on the ground floor with an adjacent board room which can host up to 30 persons. 

The Opposition leader's office will be of the same size but will be housed in the Chamber building.

The administrative building will also include the Speaker's office, the government's whip office, the deputy Speaker's office, the Parliament staff's offices and three committee rooms, which could increase to four by utilizing the Speaker's board room.

At the underground level connecting both buildings, there will be space for clerks' offices, translation booths and an archive which could be partially used as a library, Belvedere said.

In reply to questions posed by Nationalist MP and architect George Pullicino, Chris Paris said that the procurement process was complete except for some minor matters.

He added that the second phase of the installments was complete with the third and final phase currently underway.

Government MP and the Prime Minister's consultant on capital projects Charles Buhagiar asked Felice whether the former Opposition was consulted, the architect said that the Opposition was not directly consulted during the design of the project.  

Infrastructure minister Joe Mizzi, who was Opposition whip during the initial phases of the project said that Labour was presented with a fait accompli by the Nationalist administration and was never consulted.

He added that when he was Opposition whip he was never briefed and was gived the impression that all MPs would have an office in the new Parliament.

The new Parliament building, divided in two separate blocks covering a total of 23,000 square metres, was planned to be completed by September 2013, however the construction is behind schedule and there is no indication of when the buildings would be completed.