The evolution of Valletta : a psychoanalytical interpretation

Abstract

As a city develops, it adapts itself in order to cater for the needs of the population which built it. It is subjected to various alterations and additions which allow it to accommodate for the dynamic nature of human activity and allow it to form an intimate relationship with its population. This city-population relationship is the most basic driving factor behind a city's development and must be understood in order to understand why cities develop in the way they do. The city of Valletta was designed in order to function as a machine of war with everything from its grid-iron layout to its surrounding bastion wall designed in such a way as to impose order and control. Being a planned city, Valletta did not develop alongside its population but was instead imposed on it by a foreign culture and was designed specifically to control the population. This has led to the development of a unique city-population relationship which as its roots in the military undertones which conditioned everything that occurred within the city's walls.