Architecture’s negotiation with culture : the unfolding and folding of contextual realities embedded within Malta’s cultural landscape

Abstract

The underlying logic by which architecture manifests in the built environment comprises of a series of negotiations that deal with multiple, shifting realities. Moreover, the various ways of responding to or contextualising these realities are testament to the cultural dimension that resides within the process of actualisation. In this way, architecture’s inherent complexities are in a state of constant flux, simultaneously intertwining cause and effect as ambivalent and nonhierarchical processes where the form is representative of the dominant contextual realities and serves as both as the mediator of cultural expression and as its agency. Notwithstanding the many possible variables and causes attributed to the emergence of the architectural form, from a historical perspective the Maltese cultural landscape has been dominantly shaped by materiality as well as environmental considerations up till very recently. Fast forward to the current context, the dominant contextual realities determining the contemporary built environment are the market force, functional determinants, and political and socio-cultural aspects. As a result, the underlying negotiations have formulated a model of architectural practice that is less receptive to contextual changes and their increasing complexities; a model that transitioned from process-based to procedure, and from the emergence of forms to top-down intents. Questions concerning the relationship between cultural expression and the physical interpretation of architecture have intensified with the progressive shifts in realities such as, but not limited to, climate change and the depletion of limestone as a natural resource. Furthermore, the implications of these shifts have since evoked concerns on whether Maltese cultural expression is at stake. The study is driven by emphasising the underlying relations emerging from the constant flux of context such that the shift in the manner of building/architectural practice on the Maltese islands is traced. The research investigates what this dynamic relationship represents and seeks to gain a better understanding of how the model of architectural practice unfolds variants in response to shifts in contextual realities, how cultural expression becomes a contextual reality, and how certain processes inflect the model to become tradition. Finally, the relevancy of a contextual perspective in understanding architecture is discussed in reconsidering the design approach when responding to contextual realities.