Development of Villa Savoia into Apartment block divides opinion

Jean-Paul Borg, the eye behind local photography page Kappa Vision, shared a photo of a newly-built apartment block in Sliema which has replaced Villa Savoia. The restoration was met with some division: Some believed it’s a good example of the kind of developments we should be demanding, others were more critical, explaining that while it was ‘an improvement’ over the grey apartment blocks that have been popping up around the island, it’s still a far cry from the standard we should be expecting.

In our opinion, we think this development finds a good compromise between cost-saving and aesthetics.

Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but most of us seem to agree on the earmarks we like. We like to see timber and iron on our facades, we enjoy decorative masonry, arches and curves and friezes; limestone or limestone cladding feels natural to us.

The downside to these options is that they tend to come with a steep price tag. Not everyone can or wants to take unnecessary risks with their money. Instead of being overly punitive, it may be a good idea to find changes we can make to help people take risks more easily. Does this development have all the earmarks we’d like? No, but until a day when we have a bit more freedom to fail, we think this is a good compromise.

Here’s the link to the post.

Once Villa Savoia, now an apartment block. What’s your view on how the historic villa on top of Savoy Hill has been rebuilt?

The apartment block rises from the skeleton of the villa, located at the intersection of the districts of Sliema and Gżira in Rue d’Argens, corner with Reggie Miller Street.

Copyright © Kappa Vision / Jean-Paul Borg
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– Kappa Vision

We’ve worked with Jean-Paul Borg before, take a look at some of our favourite picks from his portfolio of Malta’s doors, houses and streetscapes.

• 10K fans in 2 years: Here’s how Jean-Paul’s mix of local photography with historical anecdotes is making waves

It’s nowhere near as common as we’d like, but aesthetically attractive new developments in Malta do exist and – in our opinion – deserve our attention. In our opinion, there’s enough pages and groups in Malta that do a great job of recording our bad developments, so we want to try and instead feature respectful, attractive architectural developments we think deserve to become examples to follow. If you spot a good looking new building or development, send us a tip, or a picture!