An Englishman & Valleta

A few years ago, an Englishman called Ray came to Malta and fell in love with Valleta. He scouted the entire island looking for a holiday home, but when he discovered Valleta his search was over. It was a unique house by not only were the rooms extremely spacious, but it also enjoyed a garden in the basement with all the main rooms overlooking it. In this sense, the house was fully introverted, an attribute that well suited Ray’s desire for privacy. But apart from limestone, there was little which spoke of Valletta.
There were no windows onto the street, and nowhere inside the house could one catch a glimpse of a Maltese balcony or the streetscape; until Chris Briffa Architects walked up to the roof trough a small doorway was the dome of the iconic Carmelite Basilica.
This became the turning point and the main design challenge of the initial design. Building an introverted penthouse suite abutting the surrounding roof walls, while still catching a glimpse of the most famous dome in Valleta. The penthouse had to be designed around the void to secure the dome view, and frame it upon climbing to the penthouse via the garigor.
Ray confessed to CBA that he owned a weekend house in London, designed by the world-famous minimalist, John Pawson. As much as he loved spending time in this house, he complained that it was too much of a white sculpture in its own right, and whenever he wanted to put up a work of art from his growing collection – it simply didn’t feel right.
Ray’s holiday house would need to provide what his Pawson house could not, a friendly space for artwork of all sorts; paintings, sculptures, eclectic furniture and large objects … with the masterpiece sitting on top of them – the Valleta dome duly framed on top of his house-cum-art gallery.