Our team is motivated to drive progression in the built environment not just through completed projects, but through research and discussion. Our process combines sketching, model making, photography and writing – all of which characterise an ongoing conversation about how architecture can contribute positively to our societies.
VALENTINO ARCHITECTS NAMED WINNERS AT THE XVIII DIN L-ART ĦELWA ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE AWARDS
Valentino Architects’ conversion project Dar San Rokku was named the winner of the Prix D’Honneur in the category for ‘Rehabilitation and Reuse of a Building’ at the XVIII Din l-Art Ħelwa Architectural Heritage Awards Competition. This year marked the 18th edition of...
INSIDE:OUT – DESIGNING ARCHITECTURE FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS
The third and final part of the Understanding Interior Space course of the M.Arch. Master of Architecture 2023–24 involved the students collating all material and research gathered previously to collectively design a new vision for the Ħal Far Tent Village (HTV). The...
INSIDE:OUT – RESEARCHING ARCHITECTURE FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS
The second part of the Understanding Interior Space course of the M.Arch. Master of Architecture 2023–24 was dedicated extensively to research. The main objective of this segment was for the students to gain a deeper understanding of the complex urban, architectural,...
INSIDE:OUT – PERMANENCE IS NOT THE OPPOSITE OF TEMPORARY
The 2023-24 academic year at the University of Malta saw Sandro Valentino lead the Understanding Interior Space course of the M.Arch. Master of Architecture. Run alongside US-based multidisciplinary designer William H. Dodge, the module was designed to guide students...
THE MILL HOUSE NOMINATED FOR ARCHDAILY’S 2024 BUILDING OF THE YEAR AWARDS
One of the world's most popular architecture websites, Archdaily, has announced its nominations for the 2024 building of the year awards this week. Valentino Architects’ 'The Mill House' has been included in the running for the 'Houses' category this year. The winning...
VALENTINO ARCHITECTS NAMED WINNERS AT THE XVII DIN L-ART ĦELWA ARCHITECTURAL HERITAGE AWARDS
Valentino Architects’ conversion project The Mill House (Dar il-Mitħna) was named the winner of the Prix D’Honneur in the category for ‘Adaptation of Historical Buildings to New Uses’ at the XVII Din l-Art Ħelwa Architectural Heritage Awards Competition. This year...
PRACTICE PARALLELS
Yana Fenech, designer at Valentino Architects, lists parallels between creative processes through the experience of her own painting practice. --- Intuitive LinesAs with the starting point for an architectural project, paintings often begin their life in sketchbooks....
VALENTINO ARCHITECTS JOIN JUDGING PANELS FOR ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW AND WORLD ARCHITECTURE FESTIVAL
Last month Valentino Architects joined the Architectural Review’s New Into Old judging panel for the 2023 edition of their award series. Sandro Valentino was named one of three judges in an award that celebrates “the creative ways buildings are adapted and remodelled...
TIME, SPACE, EXISTENCE: GĦALLIS EXHIBITION OPENING
Earlier this month Valentino Architects travelled to Venice for the 2023 Time, Space, Existence opening event – a large-scale architectural exhibition hosted by the European Cultural Centre (ECC), opening in parallel with the 18th Venice Architecture Biennale. GĦALLIS...
GĦALLIS: TIME, SPACE, EXISTENCE – VENICE 2023
Forming part of the 2023 Time, Space, Existence showcase hosted by the European Cultural Centre (ECC) in Venice, GĦALLIS is a small-scale exhibition that highlights Malta’s need for retrofit and a shift in focus for heritage conservation. Valentino Architects together...
TORRI TAL-GĦALLIS: ADAPTABLE HERITAGE RETROFIT
Torri tal-Għallis, a 17th century watchtower sited in Salina, Malta, was introduced as a potential site for renewal in 2021 as part of the first year M. Arch module titled ‘Understanding Interior Space’, led by Sandro Valentino. The tower was originally built in 1658...
UNDERSTANDING INTERIOR SPACE
Understanding Interior Space is a course module forming part of the first year M. Arch course at the University of Malta and has been led by Sandro Valentino since 2021. Divided into three core segments across respective semesters, the course covers contextual...
HERITAGE-LISTED MILL HOUSE CONVERSION APPEARS ON DEZEEN AND ARCHDAILY
Mill House, Valentino Architects’ residential conversion of a cluster of heritage-listed buildings in the village of Attard, Malta, has been featured on Dezeen and Archdaily. The design for the project links three Grade I and II Listed buildings, including a mill room...
VALENTINO ARCHITECTS NAMED WINNERS AT THE 2022 WORLD ARCHITECTURE FESTIVAL
Valentino Architects’ retrofit conversion project La Serenissima was named the overall winner for the Interior Residential (Single Dwelling) category at the INSIDE awards, which form part of the globally renowned World Architecture Festival. Launched in 2008, the...
OLD THEATRE TOWNHOUSE FEATURED IN DOMUS
Valentino Architects’ recently completed retrofit project, Old Theatre Townhouse, has been featured in Domus magazine, the leading Italian architectural journal established in 1928 by architect Gio Ponti. The townhouse is located on Old Theatre Street in Valletta,...
LA SERENISSIMA FEATURED IN DEZEEN, ELLE DECOR, DOMUS
Valentino Architects’ project La Serenissima, a retrofit residential design that updates a 1990s house in Attard designed by artist Frank Portelli, has been featured by a some of architecture’s best known media titles. The project, which has also been longlisted at...
VALENTINO ARCHITECTS RECOGNIZED AT THE 2022 DEZEEN AWARDS IN DESIGN AND MEDIA CATEGORIES
La Serenissima, Valentino Architects’ recently completed retrofit residential project has been long-listed at the Dezeen Awards 2022. This year’s programme saw an unprecedented number of entries ever submitted, with longlisted projects selected from 5,400 entries from...
ARCHITECTURE WITH NON-ARCHITECTS
Yana Fenech is a graduate in Spatial Design and forms part of the Valentino Architects team. Here, she considers the role of the architect in society, questioning how that role might need to change to better serve communities. The Role of the Architect As the...
VALENTINO ARCHITECTS SHORTLISTED AT THE 2022 WORLD ARCHITECTURE FESTIVAL AND INSIDE WORLD FESTIVAL OF INTERIORS
Valentino Architects has been shortlisted at this year’s World Architecture Festival (WAF) and Inside World Festival of Interiors. Launched in 2008, the two events form part of a combined festival dedicated to celebrating the best examples of current and future...
ĦAL-CAPRAT NAMED OVERALL COMMUNITY & CIVIC WINNER IN THE AR FUTURE PROJECT AWARDS
Valentino Architects has been recognised at this year’s Architectural Review (AR) Future Project Awards. The team’s proposal for Ħal-Caprat Care Village – a care home for the elderly and persons with dementia, designed to be sited in Żebbuġ – was named winner in the...
ARCHITECTURE’S SUPPORTING ROLE
In 2021, a year after the outbreak of Covid-19, restrictions still dictated society’s spatial and communal activity. The architecture of the home became a backdrop to events traditionally taken up elsewhere, stretching its conventional function of shelter and respite...
Reclaiming Public Space
PUBLISHED ON TIMES OF MALTAIn 2015, Renzo Piano’s Parliament building was completed as one of the major components to the wider City Gate Project. After months, even years, of contentious dialogue around what the project would mean for Valletta, Parliament House...
LOST VOCABULARY: BEAUTY, UGLINESS, TASTE
Jean Ebejer, Architect at Valentino Architects, questions whether we have lost our vocabulary around the description of buildings and environments. Positioning architecture as the most honest and transparent product of society, he explores its capacity to define...
THREEPLUSONE CHOSEN AS NOMINEE IN ARCHDAILY’S BUILDING OF THE YEAR AWARDS
The world’s most visited architecture website, ArchDaily, has released its nominees for the site’s 2022 Building of the Year Awards. Valentino Architects’ residential project, Threeplusone, has been listed in the Housing category, joining the likes of globally...
MEANING IN MOVEMENT: IMAGINING MALTA’S POTENTIAL FOR GREEN MOBILITY
Ella Fleri Soler, architect at Valentino Architects, writes about one of Malta’s most urgent and visible urban problems – the dominance of cars and car-parking over public space. Working as one half of Text Catalogue (with Andrew Darmanin), together with London-based...
Times of Malta Two-Part Interview
with Stephanie FsadniPART 1 Malta is ‘not overdeveloped, it’s overbuilt’ – Published in Times of Malta 14.10.2021 Valletta architecture firm honoured at Iconic Awards Valentino Architects, a design-led architecture practice based in Valletta, have recently been...
Modelling Kalkara
Built as a presentation tool, the Kalkara Residences model highlights the project’s position within a town cul-de-sac, giving dimension to its narrow site between a pedestrian alley and wider road. The model was cut, built and assembled by hand by Rob Colvin,...
VALENTINO ARCHITECTS RECOGNISED IN ANNUAL DEZEEN AND ICONIC AWARDS
The German Design Council has awarded four Valentino Architects projects in its annual Iconic Awards programme, whilst earlier this month the studio was longlisted in Dezeen’s Emerging Architecture Studio of the Year award category. Each of the awarded projects has...
PROJECTS, POSITION, PRACTICE: UNVEILING OUR NEW STUDIO WEBSITE
Three main sections define our studio’s new website, with a dedicated page titled Position giving new focus to our team’s thinking and design process. Designed by Alexandra Pace Studio with content development by Ann Dingli, the new Valentino Architects website has...
SKETCHING AS A STARTING POINT
Sketching is a crucial tool for our team in visualing early design ideas; exploring the physicality of a building and its potential whilst allowing flexibility for development. Following a client’s brief, we often produce a series of sketches to suggest the initial...
Embodied Carbon in construction: A call for re-use and deconstruction
PUBLISHED ON TIMES OF MALTAThe global construction industry is a main player in generating mankind’s negative carbon impact. In 2019, it was named responsible for 38% of the world’s CO2 emissions by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). Data on Malta’s construction...
THREEPLUSONE FEATURED ON ARCHDAILY AND ARCHELLO
Threeplusone, Valentino Architects’ three-storey residential block, has been featured on Archdaily, one of the world’s most visited architecture and design blogs, and Archello, an international architecture and product platform. The project, which was completed in...
REVISITING TOYKO: AN ARCHITECTURAL PILGRIMAGE
Daniela Valentino joined Valentino Architects in 2016 and has worked on a number of the studio’s prominent projects including the Sayonara Guesthouse and Kalkara Residences. Daniela is also a photographer whose work is featured by ARTZID and Mutual Art. In 2016, she...
THREEPLUSONE NOMINATED AT THE 2022 EU MIES AWARDS
A list of 449 works nominated for the 2022 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award has been released, including Valentino Architects’ residential project, Threeplusone. The project is one of four nominated buildings from Malta,...
PERMEABLE THRESHOLD: FACADE DEVELOPMENT, ŻEBBUĠ
The facade development of a Żebbuġ corner house has been conceived with controlled transparency, activation, and rhythm in mind – enlisting the formal qualities of the Mediterranean ‘loggia’ as a means to temper an otherwise solid facade. A slatted stone screen unites...
ART DIAMOND REPRESENTS BARTH’S MATERIAL EXPERTISE
A series of customised display units designed for the retail project Art Diamond, signify a collaborative design venture with Barth, a fifth generation material and furnishing industry leader. Based close to Milan, Italy, Barth are known to work closely with...
Building A Place We Want To Live In
Published on times of maltaThe pressure of density and overdevelopment in Malta has been increasingly felt in recent years. The pandemic has only intensified the weight of its consequences, pulling our priorities for improved quality of space into sharper focus. Over...
Defining a new and sustainable built paradigm
It goes without saying that we are living in the strangest of times. As the early weeks of this pandemic go by, we are already familiarising ourselves with a new normal. We have had to re-programme our understanding of comfort, security and routine, each doing our...
Defending Real Dialogue
Published on times of malta2019 was fraught with construction debacle – from controversial planning decisions, to building collapses and fast-track regulatory reform, to tragic and all too easily avoidable loss of life on building sites. Amidst it all, it feels as...
Connected Autonomy – A Home for Two Families
A brother and sister share a corner plot – a site that will house their independent family homes within one development. Their joint brief outlined a desire to achieve parity in the property’s value, arrangement and experience, creating two equal households on one...
ECABS RECOGNISED AS BEST OF BEST BY GERMAN DESIGN COUNCIL AT 2019 ICONIC AWARDS
The German Iconic Awards, organised by the German Design Council, honour holistic projects in the fields of architecture, interior architecture, product design and brand communication. Valentino Architects’ booking office renovation for eCABS has been named a winner...
THREEPLUSONE IS A WINNER AT THE 2019 PREMJU GALIZIA AWARDS
Our team’s recently completed low-rise apartment block, Threeplusone, has been recognised at this year’s Premju Galizia Awards. The project aims to introduce an alternative approach to small- scale residential design, characterised by sensitivity, simplicity of form,...
OBSERVATIONS ON FILM: CAPTURING MALTA’S UNSEEN SPACES
Daniela Valentino joined Valentino Architects in 2016 and has worked on a number of the studio’s prominent projects including the Sayonara Guesthouse and Kalkara Residences. Daniela is also a photographer whose work is featured by ARTZID and Mutual Art. In an...
ECABS WINS BEST INTERIORS PRIZE AT THE 2018 PREMJU GALIZIA AWARDS
Our team is delighted to have been recognised by the Kamra tal-Periti for eCabs – a cab company booking office renovation. The project was named winner in the ‘Best Interiors Award’ category at the Premju Emanuele Luigi Galizia Awards. eCabs saw the conversion of a...
ECABS NOMINATED AT THE 2018 EU MIES AWARDS
Valentino Architects’ eCABS booking office has been nominated as one of five Maltese architecture projects in this year’s EU Mies Award. The award, organsied by the Fundació Mies van der Rohe and European Commission, select 383 projects from 38 countries every two...
Designing beyond the visual
Ann Dingli interviews Valentino Architects, an emerging Maltese architecture practice that’s winning awards and carving out an elegantly measured approach to creating enduring architecture on the islands."The whole island will be obliterated by buildings. And this...
VALENTINO ARCHITECTS AWARDED PREMJU GALIZIA EMERGING PRACTICE 2018
The team at Valentino Architects is honoured to have been named ‘Best Emerging Practice’ at the Premju Emanuele Luigi Galizia Awards. Marking just over three years since launching the studio, this recognition reinvigorates our philosophy to resist notions of trends or...
PIETÀ PROJECTIONS: SPACE, PEOPLE AND TERRITORY
Pietà Projections: Catalysing Reterritorialisation’, a theoretical exploration of space, was presented by Ella Fleri Soler – architect at Valentino Architects – at the 2017 graduates awards scheme, organised by the Kamra Tal-Periti (KtP) and Society of Architecture...