As, together with my team, we commemorate 10 years since the founding of our architecture studio, Studjurban, I find myself thinking not only of this journey of urban and architectural design and policy practice but also on the architecture profession, which I hold very much to heart. Malta is undeniably going through a building frenzy. As an architect, I could have easily chosen to be part of this but I chose not to. In fact, I consciously steer away from soulless apartment blocks because they do not appeal to my vision nor that of my colleagues. Nonetheless, we still grew and managed to attract projects of bigger scale and complexity but we remained true to our principles. We do this relentlessly by promoting the idea of ‘responsible architecture’. This principle came from a document we had prepared for a publication by the Architects’ Council of Europe (ACE), Europe’s main professional body of architects. This document dealt with the need for quality architecture within the built environment and was written in the spirit of a manifesto – to establish good design principles and promote better design quality using also positive case studies in practice. As architects, we...
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