Updated: Modifications to new Parliament building 'would be very expensive'

Any modifications to the new Parliament project would be very expensive as costs would spiral, Chris Paris, CEO of the Grand Harbour Regeneration Corporation that is overseeing the construction of the building told the House Business Committee this evening. He said that the project was at an advanced and critical stage. As he walked the committee members through the design, architect Antonio Belvedere from Renzo Piano's office said that the brief was dictated by the site. He said that to respect the heritage element, seeing that Valletta was a Unesco site, an element of functionality was sacrificed and flexibility was, instead, maximised. Respect to the site was given priority. The architects were careful to create a functional building which did not conceal the fortifications. The main concept was to have a building that looked as if it was floating with the biggest part of the ground floor dedicated to cultural space. "When you do a project here, whatever it is, you have a world heritage site… There are two ways to go about it. You either ignore the site and make the most of the function, or you respect the lines dictated by the heritage elements and have a smaller site,” he...