Palazzina Vincenti is a residential building overlooking

Balluta Bay Balluta Bay is a bay on the northeast coast of Malta within St. Julian's. It is a popular recreation spot used for swimming, diving, and water sports, with a triangular ''pjazza'' surrounded by cafés and shaded by Judas trees. Its skyline is ...

in St Julian's,

Malta Malta ( , , ), officially the Republic of Malta ( mt, Repubblika ta' Malta ), is an island country in the Mediterranean Sea. It consists of an archipelago, between Italy and Libya, and is often considered a part of Southern Europe. It lies ...

. It was built in 1948 by architect

Gustavo R. Vincenti Gustavo Romeo Vincenti (26 August 1888 – 25 April 1974) was a Maltese architect and developer. Born into a wealthy and business oriented family in Valletta and Floriana, he was able to purchase land and design and build buildings which he woul ...

as his own residence, and it is considered to be one of the best examples of

Modernist architecture Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...

in its country. As of 2021, it is currently proposed that the building be demolished and replaced by a hotel.

History

Palazzina Vincenti was designed by

, a prominent Maltese architect, as his personal residence. It has been described as the epitome of his own architectural development, in which he embraced the Modernist style as opposed to Art Nouveau and

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

which had influenced his earlier works. It was constructed in 1948, and Vincenti lived in the building until his death in 1974. The architect's son, Hilaire Vincenti, subsequently lived there until his own death in 2019. A request to schedule the building was submitted by architect

Edward Said Edward Wadie Said (; , ; 1 November 1935 – 24 September 2003) was a Palestinian-American professor of literature at Columbia University, a public intellectual, and a founder of the academic field of postcolonial studies.Robert Young, ''Whit ...

to the

Planning Authority A local planning authority (LPA) is the local government body that is empowered by law to exercise urban planning functions for a particular area. They exist in the United Kingdom and India. United Kingdom Mineral planning authorities The role ...

(PA) in 2019. By 2021 the property was split between several owners including the developer Carlo Stivala, and parts of the building were in a dilapidated state. In November 2021 it was reported that Stivala submitted an application to the PA to demolish the building and replace it with a 14-storey hotel designed by architect Robert Musumeci. Following this proposal, the Superintendence of Cultural Heritage, the

AD+PD AD+PD, also written as ADPD, is a green and progressive political party in Malta. The party was founded on 17 October 2020 by a merger of the two most prominent third parties in Malta, the green Democratic Alternative (AD) and the social libe ...

political party and other organisations and individuals including the mayor of St Julian's made numerous calls for preserving the building, citing its historical and architectural importance. On 17 December 2021, the PA issued an Emergency Conservation Order which granted it Grade 1 scheduling for a year.

Architecture

Palazzina Vincenti is one of the best examples of

in Malta, and it is one of the earliest residential buildings of this style in the country. The building consists of a number of filleted cubic volumes built over a group of garages. The façades are characterised by plain

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

walls with long horizontal windows and cantilevered

concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wi ...

balconies with austere steel railings. Internally, the residence includes a grand foyer,

waffle slab A waffle slab or two-way joist slab is a concrete slab made of reinforced concrete with concrete ribs running in two directions on its underside. The name ''waffle'' comes from the grid pattern created by the reinforcing ribs. Waffle slabs are pre ...

ceilings and a prominent staircase built out of concrete. The building also contains a tunnel which leads to the foreshore of

References

External links

* {{commons category inline, Palazzina Vincenti 1948 establishments in Malta Houses in Malta Limestone buildings in Malta Modernist architecture in Malta Houses completed in 1948 St. Julian's, Malta

History

Architecture

See also

References

External links