Midi's Tigne Point is coming together as a unique blend of contemporary design combined with a deep-seated respect for the past and, importantly, the history of the area. As the arcade-lined street leading from the Victorian chapel, past The Point shopping complex and into Pjazza Tigne draws closer to completion, Midi's Lead Consultant Professor Alex Torpiano of aoM Partnership discusses the issue of re-creating a memory of what Tigne Point went through in its history.

The brief MIDI plc passed on to its architects was, on the surface, a simple one: the conversion of an abandoned and disused military area, complete with barracks and a range of other buildings, into a contemporary, mixed-use, brown-field development.

Essentially, the Tigne' Point Project is the creation of a complete small town, combining residential areas with office and retail space, as well as extensive open public areas, heritage attractions and leisure facilities. "The starting point was - what should we do with the barracks?" Prof Torpiano began. The buildings were not all from the same period - the area had developed over time. Neither were they all on the same orientation, nor in the same state of preservation. Some had suffered more neglect than others.

This meant that a decision had to be taken about which Barracks Buildings were worth keeping, and which were too far gone. Decisions about use were easier: while the façades and exteriors had character and spoke strongly of their British roots, the interiors, with a heavily modified, utilitarian sequence of small, anonymous and unattractive rooms, had little value.

A decision on how to handle the arcades - "The Victorian British attempt to deal with the problems of living in a hot, sunny climate" - as Prof. Torpiano put it - was also necessary. "We were encouraged by MEPA to re-align some of the buildings and arcades, so as to keep, and give value to, what was worth conserving," he explained.

Besides the Barracks themselves, there were three other buildings to take into account: the so-called "Clock Tower" building, or the Regimental Institute, which was practically intact, the building known as the School, and the Sergeant's Mess. The arcades themselves posed an architectural problem: they were tied to a particular period of our history, and, Prof. Torpiano explained, do not really have a place in a contemporary vernacular.
Initially, the architects planned to keep the football pitch at ground level, Prof. Torpiano said. This is, after all, where you would expect it. But, having decided to incorporate the arcades into the development, this concept was changed. "The arcades are two storeys high, and other possibilities began to emerge. We were looking at what we could do with the volumes below the pitch, and we found our solution," he said.

"Free-standing arcades are difficult things, so by raising the football pitch we also managed to get a building, which eventually became The Point shopping complex, to provide support to them."
Even so, problems still remained. Prof. Torpiano talks about the work that went into finding the way to attach the arcades to the buildings, to allow the builders to turn the plans into a working structure. The solutions were found however, and the results speak for themselves.

There is now an arcaded pedestrian street leading from the Victorian Chapel of St.Luke's to the contemporary Pjazza, along a route flanked by historic buildings including the Sergeants' Mess, the Clock Tower/Regimental Institute and the School on one side, and by The Point, faced by the facades of three Barracks Buildings, on the other. There are other heritage landmarks within easy reach, including the Cambridge and Garden Batteries, as well as Fort Tigne' itself just beyond the Pjazza.

This is a modern street, with its feet firmly embedded in a contemporary vision. It is, however, one that respects the past and seeks to retain a connection to the many previous incarnations of Tigne' Point. "We have not recreated a Victorian street," Prof Torpiano concluded. "We have created a walkway leading into the heart of Tigne' Point, to the modern Pjazza Tigne', that, however, echoes Malta's Victorian British heritage."