Harbour Club

Valletta, Malta

In 2009, the client was able to secure three leases a few metres away from their existing offices down by the water’s edge in the Grand Harbour. Essentially underground, damp spaces (formerly used for shady business) were transformed into an elegant restaurant and jazz bar, worthy of its enviable location.

The back-of-house equipment within the new ‘tip’ of the peninsular terrace is screened by a curved concrete wall, draped with a lace-like pattern inspired by vernacular gates, roofed over by a steel grille and a kiosk-like octagonal structure, which in turn hides a dumb-waiter on one side, and a restroom on the other.

Projects such as The Harbour Club celebrate the contemporary, whilst acknowledging all of its past layers, where restoration and reuse are not just about bringing architecture back to its original state, but effectively recording all its past interventions, and marrying them with contemporary ones for legibility and posterity.

Photos by David Pisani