The Spirit of Place

The Spirit Of Place | Richard England | Pidgeon Digital 14/05/20, 15:42
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The Spirit Of Place

Richard England
1
RICHARD ENGLAND
©Richard England
"What is new and significant must of necessity

be grafted to old roots." These are the words of
the Hungarian composer Bela Bartok, and it is
this philo- sophy which I have tried to follow in
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my architecture, in trying to produce an

architecture of place, an architecture which is
in fact an expression of regionalism, but
regionalism with relevance to a particular sense
of place. The Maltese Islands where I was born
and bred, float like a scorched leaf in the centre
of a blazing Mediterranean sea, an archipelago
made of stone and still more stone.
2
STONE QUARRY
©Richard England
This is an island where the fields are rock and

the hedges are stone. This is a place which has
always practised, because of the one sole
building material available, a maximum
utilisation of minimal resources, something
which the world of the 60's have forgotten. In
Malta, this globigerino limestone, these blocks,
seen in a quarry, somehow echo the future
buildings of tomorrow. We can see the
geometry of the same townscape forms,once
this is put together in completed buildings. In
Malta, the sum of the parts is actually equal to
the whole.
3
MALTA TOWNSCAPE
©Richard England
What is there today has always been there. It is

only that some of it has been remodelled. The
quarry negative, in content becomes equal to
the positive building action by man. This is an
island, a man—made island, where even what is
natural appears as man—made. To one who was
born on this island in such a place, I think it is
natural that one would have to develop an
architecture which is focussed on the qualities
of this particular sense of place. Limited
technology, low cost in terms of labour, one
building material, climatic conditions, and a
relationship to Mother Earth which dates back
to the prehistoric Megalithic temples of 3000
BC, all forces towards an architecture of the
very particular environment.
4
RAMLA BAY HOTEL , MARFA,
MALTA, 1964
©Richard England
With this background, and after a period of

study in Milan (at that time Europe's liveliest
architectural centre), together with practical
experience with one of the last great
Renaissance Man designers, Gio Ponti, I
returned to the Island of Malta to find the new
tourist boom and the requirement of building a
number of hotels. This Visit to Milan provided
the cultural and intellectual overlay to the
ethnic—spun, vernacular influences. The
interesting thing about an architecture of
tourism is, perhaps, that the sense of identity
and the actual character of a place should be
reflected. So the problem of identity becomes

an actual material— istic requirement of the
problem. Here, in the earliest of hotels, the
Ramla Bay, situated in Martha, I have tried to
create an architecture of evolution, of conti-
nuity, a new leaf as opposed to a new tree. Here
there is a direct borrowing or recycling of
vernacular elements: the lintel arch,found in the
water cisterns, is reflected in the balcony
screens of this particular hotel.
5
CAVALIERI HOTEL , ST.
JULIAN'S, MALTA, 1967
©Richard England
The arch and square openings in the Cavallieri,

situated at St. Julian's, echo the use of the
adjacent buildings seen in the square and
arched openings. Always I .have believed that

the problem with modern architecture is that it
has tried to find a universal solution to what in
fact has never been a universal problem. Here,
as in most of my work, I've tried to capture the
spirit of place.
6
SALINA BAY HOTEL , MALTA,
1970
©Richard England
In the Salina Bay Hotel there is an architecture

which evolves from, and is related to, the
particular qualities of the place it is located in,
and reflects the technology available during the
time when it was built. The problem with most
tourist architecture on small islands, and in fact
all the coast of the Mediterra- nean, is to place a
building of considerable dimension in a very
fragile landscape. Here I have attempted to

recreate by borrowing from the vernacular the
silhouette of a Maltese village with its crowning
church centre. Or even more so, the fort- ress-
like citadels of the Maltese archipelago. There
is also, I think, an attempt to try and evolve
towards a more simple architecture, to the
essentials. And I stress the word evolve
because, as a musician in his maturity
approaches silence, and as perhaps a painter
would approach the blank canvas, one must
actually grow up to and evolve into a simple
essential expression.
7
COMPUTER CENTRE,
QORMI, MALTA, 1972
©Richard England
From this research into the essentials came, of

course, respect and a further understanding of
the simple traditional masonry forms utilised in
Malta. In this bank computer centre, these are
utilised in a direct and formal manner with a
sense of classicism and an almost Palladian
effect; a reminder perhaps of the necessary
parameters, of the rigorous discipline, of a
limestone technology.
8
CHURCH OF ST. JOSEPH,
MANIKATA, MALTA, 1962 -
1974
©Richard England
In the Church of St. Joseph situated in the little

village of Manikata, 12 years in the making, one
learned the most valuable lesson of one's
career, that of participation in building, the

making of a building. I firmly now believe that
every architect, once in his lifetime, should
make a building with his hands, to understand
materials, to understand the very essence of
what building is about. For architecture is about
making buildings, not only drawing them and
conceiving them. Here, because of the
particular requirements of the people of the
village, because of the limited funds, I had to
actually participate, as an architect, in a
medieval concept of building and actually
choosing and laying stones myself.
9
DRYWALL RURAL
TOOLSHED, MALTA
©Richard England
Here the relationship of the actual materials

and the site and the people taught me that
architecture is about communion, about getting
together to produce, in this particular case, a
space of liturgical silence.
10

1974
©Richard England
Here is a place, an arena, where man can meet

and dialogue with his inner self. The most
important, perhaps, attempt is to try and
create, as Gio Ponti once said 5 since
architecture which deals with churches is not
really a question of architecture but a
question of religion - the problem is to try and
create a spiritual content by using materialistic

means. Like Schumacher, I firmly believe that
unity has something to do with God, diversity
and multiplicity have something to do with our
earth, and uniformity - unfortunately the mirror
of contemporary and modern cities ~ has
something to do with Hell.
11
1974
©Richard England
These are forms borrowed in a relevant

manner, relevant to time and to space, but
moreso what Aldo van Eyck calls "place" and
"occasion". It is an attempt to make space
meaningful, and therefore transcend it into
almost 'a sacred place'. Ultimately, the necessity
to create an emotive response from the

observer and from the spaces which constitute
this architecture. An architecture which
respects its past, draws its origins from its
genus loci, from what I would like to refer to as
"its voices of a site", demonstrates its faith in the
present and places its hOpe in the future.
12
WHITE ROCKS HOLIDAY
COMPLEX, ST. ANDREWS,
MALTA, 1978
©Richard England
After a period of meditation on the qualities of

“white" (this non-colour which in fact is all
colour) and a series of white city marble
sculptures (where the pieces are
interchangeable and the player actually
becomes a sculptor), I was influenced towards

what I would like to call a more intricate
manipulation of objects in space. This, I think, is
evident in the juxtaposition of the different
pavilions of the White Rocks holiday complex at
St. Andrews in Malta ...
13
ROYAL SUMMER PALACE,

JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA,
1978. MODEL
©Richard England
..and also for the project of a Royal Summer

Palace for the Saudi Royal Family in Jeddah.
Here of course is a different problem of
building in the vast openness of the desert; and
one is trying to capture, with its series of
shaded shadows, the secrets of the veiled
opacity of the Islamic traditions of the layers of

things. Here is an umbrella to protect man from
the blazing desert sun. I firmly believe that
occasionally the architect is faced with the
problem of providing a bold man— made
statement in order to relate to nature. There is
a time to be meek and a time to be humble, but
also a time to make a bold positive statement.
And this, in this particular case, is one of them.
Here is an architecture where the mirror of
light meets the mirror of shadow, in Islamic
layers and veiled opacities.
14
MARINA SAN GORG

APARTMENTS. MALTA, 1980
©Richard England
In the Marina San Gorg holiday appartments, at
St. Geogre's Bay in Malta again, perched on the

water's edge of the blue Mediterranean Sea,
again there is an attempt to marry the building
to its pre-existent neighbours. This is a case
where the architect is meek and produces a
subdued building in order to enable it to merge
totally into the whole complex and existing
environment. In this case, the site constitutes a
number of existing buildings, a legacy of British
rule carved in honey stone; and eventually the
whole site will mix the tenses in a balance of the
present. Here, the role of the architect is to
produce a small part of the music, of the whole
orchestration of what is visible.
15
MARINA SAN GORG
APARTMENTS. MALTA, 1980
©Richard England
Even the details recall those adjacent buildings.

Here one is able to borrow from the pages of
history, and this perhaps is one of the most
positive aspects of the so—called Post-
Modernism. It has enabled architects to do
away with the complex that it is wrong to roam
through history. But the important thing is that
one must borrow with a sense of relevance,
with a sense of place. When one copies, I firmly
believe, as in the words of Jean Cocteau, that
'an original-artist cannot copy. He has only to
copy to be original'.
16
FESTAVAL TOURIST
VILLAGE, MELLIEHA, MALTA,
1980
©Richard England
An attempt to integrate a building into its site,

in such a way that the two attain an almost
indivisible sense of unity, is demonstrated in
this Festaval Tourist Village complex in Mellieha
in the north of the Island. Modern architec-
ture has spent, I believe, too much time in
studying the joints of buildings, thus forgetting
perhaps the most important joint of all, that of
the building to its site. Here, six floors are
terraced into the landscape in such a way that
never at one moment do we get more than one
particular floor actually appearing above the
terrain.
17
FESTAVAL TOURIST
VILLAGE, MELLIEHA, MALTA,
1980
©Richard England
In a very sensitive landscape or, for that matter,

anywhere, an architect needs eyes that feel and
hands that see.
18
BAB AL SHEIKH
DEVELOPMENT PROJECT,
BAGHDAD, IRAQ. KHEYLANI
SQUARE OFFICE BLOCK.
MODEL
©Richard England
In 1980, the Iraqi architect Rifat Chadirji was

appointed Councillor to the Major in Baghdad
on a scheme which involved the rehabilitation
and rebuilding of much of the city. He chose a
number of consultants including Venturi, Arup
Associates, Ricardo Bofill, APP, Sheppard
Robson, Mutschler, and I was luckily involved
with this group. Here was a scheme of an
enormous magnitude. But under the guidance
and under the organisational values by Rifat
Chadirji, one was working not on a series of
individual buildings but on an integrated whole
urban pattern. In the first building, an office on
Kheylani Square surrounding the existing
Kheylani Mosque, again I have tried to create a
total environment. There is an attempt at the
integration of many hybrid elements to unify
the whole environment in a relevant modern
vernacular, emphasising the spirit of this
particular city. The building here relates, not
only to the existing site but also to the buildings
yet to come by other architects. For
architecture is a journey involving the past, the
present and the future.
19
BAB AL SHEIKH
BAGHDAD, IRAQ. HOUSING
ON MAIN STREET, 1981.
MODEL
©Richard England
In the Bab Al Sheikh housing scheme along a

new road facing a housing scheme by Arup
Associates of London, there is a combination of
internal shaded streets, and the
European.mode1 of the street for traffic which
separates the two schemes. I have again
attempted to use local materials together with
precast concrete elements. This is a
development which technologically looks to the
future but architecturally is conservative;
environmentally belongs to the place. The use
of latticed 'shenashils' (balconies), narrow
vertical openings and corbels borrowed from
the Iraqi vernacular, help once again to tie this
building to its particular sense of place.
20
BAB AL SHEIKH
BAGHDAD, IRAQ. OFFICE
BUILDING ON KHULAFA
STREET, 1982. MODEL
©Richard England
The office on Khulafa Street, again in Baghdad,

is a link building which ties up a number of
disparate buildings happening in that particular
area. It is a mannerist building which has forms
which are rememberedanuirecollected but yet
put together in a new form of synthesis.
21
BAB AL SHEIKH
BAGHDAD, IRAQ. HOUSING,
1982. MODEL .
©Richard England
In the housing scheme, again in the Bab Al
Sheikh development, there is a collage and

reassemblage of what I would like to refer to as
Baghdad's inner visual secrets. There is a
tension of different forms held together in the
myraid reflec- tions of the internal pool area,
which is the focal point of this whole
development. Here, multiplicity is a reflection
of unity. Screens of old facades, real memory
screens, bring the past to the present and
emphasise once again a belief in an architecture
of continuity and evolution. Here is an
architecture which again respects the
traditions, the background, and the specific
spirit of this city and civilisation.
22
A GARDEN FOR MYRIAM. ST.
JULIANS, MALTA, 1982
©Richard England
Back home in Malta, a private arcadia, a place of

spiritual peace in one's never- ending search for
silent spaces, the result perhaps of a visit to the
Japanese Kara-Senzui Gardens of Kyoto. This is
a place impregnated with memories, personal,
real and imaginary, where memory—walls and
screens exist as laminal layered sedi- mentary
systems, each a respective trap of memory in
past time. Time, both past and future, is trapped
in an instant where it is difficult to establish that

the structure is being built or in fact is in a state
of decay: a play on time. But it is also an attempt
to bring together the artist—architect
approach, the total approach of sculpture and
architecture. It is a private theatre conceived in
rhythms to soothe and calm from the modern
chaotic and mechanistic world of today. For I
still firmly believe, in the words of Lou Kahn,
that 'knowledge is of the head but
understanding, of the heart'.
23
A GARDEN FOR MYRIAM. ST.
©Richard England
This is a place where proportions focus on

serenity, silence and a place of quiescence not
only for one's body but perhaps more so for
one's soul - for the soul does require more
space than the body. The French aviator, writer
and poet St. Exupery, in his 'Little Prince' writes:
'It is only with the heart that one can see
correctly'. This perhaps is a garden where one
may again discover this truth in today's
turbulent world. After the mean years of
Rationalism architects should perhaps today
strive to discover the usefulness of the useless.
24
AQUASUN LIDO. ST.

©Richard England
In the Aquasun Lido the play is again on

memory, a place for tourists situated again on
The Island of Malta. But the game here is a
nostalgia for childhood. This is conceived
almost as a Surrealist space in echoes of
enigmatic De Chirico piazzas; a place for the
tourist to relax; a place where, since we cannot
go back to our childhood, we might as well
invent one, or at least be able to capture,
through architecture, its memorable
metaphors. This is an attempt at the creation of
myth and ritual, mixed with childhood dreams.
Here, in almost an anachronism of time, one is
faced with time past and time present. This is an
arena of geo- metries relating to Man's first
established archetypal forms as a builder, and
contributes to the formation of a sense of place
and perhaps, hopefully for the tourist coming
from the fast mechanistic cities of Europe and
other places, the creation of a modern fairytale.
In a world which has grown old and weary, and
where one is tempted to ask 'where has all the
silence gone?', it is a vital necessity that
architects discover the old essential qualities in

order that we, as its makers, cause and create
an emotive response. In a world blinded by
hate, war and violence, it is perhaps time for the
artist and the architect, with a respect of the
patina of place, to be able to create the lost
fairytale and the legend. Let us not forget that
Man and many of his works fade away, but
legends;nu1fairytales last. With a sense of
continuity, architects must remember that Man
is part of the earth, Man is an essential very
small part of this earth. The architect therefore
must try to create an architecture of essential
integration with place, tradition, history. I am, as
I have said, for a technically progressive
architecture, but a culturally conservative one. I
am for a dialogue between past and present;
and finally for a joining of head and heart in a
form of joyous response to life, in an integration
with Nature, an architecture of evolution, of
simplicity; where I would finally like to achieve
an architecture where the floor is the earth, the
walls are the wind, and the ceiling is the sky. -
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HOME ABOUT EXPLORE SUBSCRIBE FAQ CONTACT

"What is new and significant must of necessity

my architecture, in trying to produce an

This is an island where the fields are rock and

What is there today has always been there. It is

very particular environment.

With this background, and after a period of

reflected. So the problem of identity becomes

The arch and square openings in the Cavallieri,

arched openings. Always I .have believed that

In the Salina Bay Hotel there is an architecture

fragile landscape. Here I have attempted to

From this research into the essentials came, of

In the Church of St. Joseph situated in the little

career, that of participation in building, the

Here the relationship of the actual materials

CHURCH OF ST. JOSEPH,

Here is a place, an arena, where man can meet

create a spiritual content by using materialistic

These are forms borrowed in a relevant

to create an emotive response from the

After a period of meditation on the qualities of

becomes a sculptor), I was influenced towards

ROYAL SUMMER PALACE,

..and also for the project of a Royal Summer

opacity of the Islamic traditions of the layers of

MARINA SAN GORG

In the Marina San Gorg holiday appartments, at

St. Geogre's Bay in Malta again, perched on the

Even the details recall those adjacent buildings.

An attempt to integrate a building into its site,

In a very sensitive landscape or, for that matter,

In 1980, the Iraqi architect Rifat Chadirji was

In the Bab Al Sheikh housing scheme along a

The office on Khulafa Street, again in Baghdad,

In the housing scheme, again in the Bab Al

Sheikh development, there is a collage and

Back home in Malta, a private arcadia, a place of

in an instant where it is difficult to establish that

This is a place where proportions focus on

AQUASUN LIDO. ST.

In the Aquasun Lido the play is again on

architects discover the old essential qualities in

Andrew Edward Andrew Paolo

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