Architects get a lashing... finally!

Abstract

Minister George Pullicino certainly deserves praise for his lambasting of the architectural profession at the Malta Financial and Business Times Radisson SAS Bay Point Resort business breakfast of July 21. His scathing criticism of architects is even more significant, since it comes from a fellow architect. The erosion of the country's social fibre and morals is a fact, and nowhere is this more evident than in building and property, where no place is deemed too sacred to be spared the developer's axe. From the long string of ODZ (Outside Development Zones) applications published in The Malta Independent every Saturday and the even longer string of sanctionings appealed by the MEPA board or the Appeals Board, it is evident that very few architects feel any qualms at all - I can't imagine an architect trying to dissuade his client from applying for a permit to develop part of a pristine valley simply because he feels some pangs of conscience.