Malta's 'cheap' architects gather round
Published:
July 1, 2009 at 9:41pm
Next Sunday we'll ask Astrid along to give us the opposing view - ghal bilanc fix-xandir
Somebody’s been asking on timesofmalta.com why the government didn’t just commission a cheap Maltese architect. Well, last Sunday morning Malta’s cheap architects gathered round Renzo Piano at the museum exhibition in Valletta and received a personal explanation of the project from the man himself.
They didn’t sit at home and get their opinions from The People on timesofmalta.com.
17 Comments Comment
Reply to Leonard Click here to cancel reply
Did any one of them have the guts to ask the emperor why he was naked?
[Daphne – They don’t think he’s naked. You and a few other partially educated people do, your lack of education revealing itself in a total and absolute absence of awareness of just how stupid you sound. You’re the one who’s naked.]
John II: The Chamber of Architects is soliciting its members views, comments, etc. You may wish to contact the secretary for a summary report.
Ooooh! Touchy! :o)
[Daphne – No, John, not touchy – just very bored with cowards and with a very low tolerance threshold for utter fools. When my patience runs out it runs out, and then God help anyone who’s still standing. You might wish to note that other people who prefer not to use their own name on this website don’t hide their identity from me: they use their real email address, so that I at least know who they are.]
Daph, if this comment on timesofmalta.com is anything to go by, then most of “The People” are a ridiculous lot. (I know that it has nothing at all to do with Valletta / Piano, but am posting it anyway because it is so hilarious.)
“A. Muscat (5 hours, 3 minutes ago)
Minister T. Fenech could provide a solution. …
… I am sure Jesus is not happy to see 99.9 of his follower females having sex before marriage or at the age of 14 or 15 years.
Jesus is not happy to see teenager pregnant mothers.
Jesus is not happy to see 25-30 % of Christian born babies are either of unknown fathers or out of wed-lock.
Tougher measures from Minister Fenech would make Jesus happier and our society healthier.” ( http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090701/local/28-schoolgirl-mothers-receive-assistance )
I wonder why “Jesus” not “God”.
[Daphne – Ghax hawn Malta nahdmu bil-Bambin.]
To be fair, most of the “happy-clappy” crowd prefer Jesus to God – not just in Malta.
I find it great to have such confidence in a minister they expect him to fix what God couldn’t.
The funniest bit is that “Jesus is not happy with teenage pregnant mothers” (sic). I thought that Mary was meant to have had him at the age of sixteen.
[Daphne – Probably more like 12 in those days.]
And his parents weren’t married, either.
[Daphne – Not just that, but she got pregnant by somebody other than the man she was living with.]
Daphne, I admire your resilience with some people, and which they must be stretching to the limit. Personally I’m getting too old for this ====. The idiots have taken over timesofmalta.com. Please don’t let them take over yours. Your site has given us back a bit of sanity in the face of a print media that seems to have regressed in its standards.
Tonio Fenech should get tough with these promiscuous youngsters. How about charging them ten euros for a lay? Let me see, the number of births via an unknown father, plus all the premarital sex, times ten euros a piece, would increase the government’s revenue substantially. Oh I almost forgot that it should be times twenty because it takes two to tango.
Thanks, Mandy. I missed that one – just too funny.
So many of The People think that all those in authority are idiots and that THEY have the solution to all our problems.
They tell Tonio Fenech how to solve the deficit, they tell Dalli how to easily solve the waiting list, they tell football coaches which players to choose etc etc
Now the latest topic is telling Piano what he should do and that Maltesel architects seem to be fools too. Out of all the comments the two I prefer are –
1. the one by somebody who doubts that Piano knows how to construct a building on stilts`;
2. the one by somebody who suggested that we take the roof from the old dock in Cospicua and stick it on top of the theatre.
Daphne – if you want to test your patience try and listen to the answers given in radio and television competitions. It will give you an excellent chance of gauging the mental process of The People.
Actually Daphne, I rather think that it was precisely NOT Malta’s cheap periti (NOT architects please) that gathered around Renzo Piano last Sunday to appreciate his work and discuss his philosophy of design.
[Daphne – I wasn’t the one who called them cheap. I was quoting The People. Also, the word ‘periti’ does not exist in the English language, so call them what they are: architects and civil engineers. The practice of referring to somebody, when speaking English, as Perit Zammit (for example) is quite ridiculous. They are not people qualified in a unique discipline, but people qualified in two disciplines. When speaking English, an architect is Mr, Miss or Mrs – unless the architect has a doctorate or holds a professorship.]
Malta’s cheap periti were elsewhere slapping together crappy pastiche buildings and imitation ‘baroque’ rubbish with ‘lavur’ and ‘balavostri’ and ornate imitation Corinthian columns for the type of people who think Barry’s piece of neo-classical pastiche junk was the bees knees and the dog’s bo****ks of architecture.
Min huma n-nies li jistghu jitkellmu fuq dan is-suggett? In-nies ta’ klassi……in-nies tad-degrees mill-universita? Cwiec f’dan il-pajjiz ghandha kemm trid, forsi jien wiehed minnhom, biss kullhadd ghandhu dritt jghid tieghu, jekk ma jogobniex nghallqu widnejjna u ma nisimghu xejn.
Daphne, looks like The Times is starting the attain the standards of its several online contributors and “experts”. Sentence taken from today’s edition – a story about the murder that happened about a mile away from where I live.
“Mr Wallner and Ms Fenech had left Cobham and drove across the English Channel to Malta”
Now that’s something. I suppose Eurostar and the Channel Ferries will soon be out of business.
[Daphne – It’s killing me. And then there’s that lovely Maltese ‘had left Cobham and drove’ rather than ‘had left Cobham and driven’]
Yes Daphne, agreed. I realise that there is no word for Perit in the English language. I myself am weary of having to fend off wisecracks when I’m abroad (. . . some kind of exotic bird . . .etc) but the point I was trying to make is that Malta’s professionals are not merely architects because the curriculum they follow in their tertiary education includes both architecture and civil engineering. The validity and merits of this practice are perhaps debatable when considering the overall standard of both architecture and civil engineering in this country but mister Mintoff thought otherwise at the time.
The proper full title for a ‘warranted’ professional in Malta is ‘Architect and Civil Engineer’ not just Architect. This is why some hackles were raised at the several references to ‘il-Perit Piano’ by some poorly informed members of the press . . . and even some of our illustrious politicians.
Yes, and as at least one ‘perit’ pointed out, it was on the OPM’s invitation card too.