When Ray DeMicoli visited Floriana to survey the famous “flagship” music hall, he was greeted by the late Mr Reggie Holland with a story from the building’s not so distant past. This had been the World War II Barceloneta bar where the notorious Zeza used to work. Remembered as boisterous and cheeky, Zeza’s curves not only featured in the dreams of British sailors, but met with Maltese clients from all social classes. When she appeared on the balcony, he recalled, and lifted her skirt of broderie d’anglaise, caps of sailors went flying ‘around the ceiling fans’. Some 60 years later, the building’s new owners, Middle Sea Valletta Life Assurance Company Ltd, had purchased the property and were looking to convert it into an office building.
However, the Planning Authority had requested that the existing façades on The Mall and one side street were to be retained. As is usual in architecture, what seems to be a restriction can quickly be transformed into an opportunity. In fact, once the inter axis was measured and repeated as a setback rhythm of steel joists to that same dimension, the facade of the new extension was complete. An internal atrium was installed to give natural light to the building interior. The light is softly diffused through the galvanized steel grating of the maintenance balconies.
Through this dialogue between proportion and rhythm, the building’s high tech extension complements the old stone walls, breathing life into them once again.
1999
2001
