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 was launched as a small-scale exhibition highlighting Malta’s need for retrofit and a shift in focus for heritage conservation.

As part of a two-day long series of events, the ECC invited exhibitors and guests to tour their two main exhibition sites, Palazzo Mora and Palazzo Bembo, which put on display an extensive architectural survey of projects from studios all over the world. Valentino Architects joined with Ann Dingli, Sumaya Ben Saad, Matthew Farrugia, Luca Zarb and Tara Žikić to present GĦALLIS, which was sited at Palazzo Mora, and whose content centred on a coastal watchtower located along the north-eastern shore of Malta called Torri tal-Għallis.

The tower was built in 1658 by Grandmaster Martin De Redin of the Knights of the Order of St John as one in a string of defence fortifications encircling the islands’ perimeter, many of which are now vacant. The GĦALLIS exhibition isolates nine fragments of the tower’s existing fabric and shows them in relationship with respective architectural elements that come together to form the tower’s new interiors. In presenting this relationship, the exhibition detaches the tower from rigid confines of time and space, encouraging instead an observation of fluctuating use. GĦALLIS explores how historic structures might be creatively adapted and made more accessible to wider public use. Its new architectural elements’ functional flexibility is driven by an end-goal of inclusiveness, resisting prescribed functions that might preclude the tower from specific uses or users.

GĦALLIS will remain open to the public in Venice till November 2023. The architectural project for Torri tal- Għallis was designed by Valentino Architects with Sumaya Ben Saad, Nigel Borg, Matthew Farrugia, Luca Zarb, and Tara Žikić and the project is being developed in consultancy with the tower’s custodians, Din L-Art Ħelwa, supported by local retrofit developer, Jeffrey Farrugia. GĦALLIS has been generously sponsored by Salini  Resort and Claret Group; RLAUTIER; Bathroom Design; Onepercent; Bonavia Bros. Co. Ltd.; Ventura; Elektra; Schranz Ltd.; Cultural Heritage Projects Ltd.; and DARI.