By Fiona Galea Debono
A vocal critic of the Planning Authority has won the institution’s own award, instilling hope in the architect for environment protection, as she made a call for radical action to stop the danger of the industry. Architect Joanna Spiteri Staines is the first woman to have won the MASP President’s Award for a distinguished lifetime contribution to architectural education, theory and practice, particularly in the conservation of heritage and contemporary insertions. She is following in the footsteps of “giants” and “mentors” like Richard England, Conrad Thake and Konrad Buhagiar, previous awardees. “I was greatly surprised and humbled,” she said, acknowledging that she won the prize for “working with great teams” such as Architecture Project (AP), and Nidum and Openworks Studio, which she co-founded. Currently design director for the Gozo Museum, Spiteri Staines was particularly honoured to be recognised for her work as a restoration architect, which is usually “hidden behind the scenes – not 20-storey-high, in-your-face buildings”. An advocate for architectural heritage, Spiteri Staines has collaborated with Din l-Art Ħelwa since 2006. She thinks the fact she is female could be one of the reasons for the award, but it was also due to her work on the rehabilitation of historical buildings and for speaking out for the protection of the environment. For her, being an architect and an environmentalist were two sides of the same coin. “You cannot be an architect without protecting the context, be it heritage or nature, that you are working within,” she said, adding that the three key elements were “proportion, harmony and context”, in sharp contrast to much of the discordant development going on. Construction during appeals Among her battles, Spiteri Staines has been vociferous about the fact developers cynically carried on building during an appeal, meaning that when a final decision was delivered, the damage was already done. In the case of weak foundations, those of the neighbouring sites had to be shored up, and a proper structural and geotechnical engineer appointed to do it. Calling for an “intense review by a serious independent body of the entire construction industry regulation framework”, Spiteri Staines touched on other safety issues. Fire guidelines for escape staircases in buildings of a certain size had to be signed off by a warranted mechanical and electrical engineer, she noted. “Yet I have entered countless apartment blocks that have taken the short cut of having narrow radial steps instead of a landing when the main staircase is also the fire escape.” Neither has she seen, in many cases, 30- and 60-minute fire doors to garages – a potential fire hazard due to battery-operated electric cars – which would block the staircase to overlying apartments and prevent it from becoming a ‘chimney’. “If people are having to spend loads of money on a property, should they not be given the assurance that they are safe; that if there is a tremor of a certain magnitude, they are protected, and that if there is a fire, they can escape.”