Observing socio-cultural dynamics to inform a better understanding of Valletta's built environment

Abstract

Architects and urban designers strive to ensure the development of places for people. Through an understanding of public life as it unfolds within existing built environments, the key to establishing efficacious places, can be attained in order to suit the broader needs of the community within a specific context. This research is ingrained in the collation of qualitative data to yield site-specific results. Tris study forms part of a broader research project for the Valletta 2018 Foundation, addressing four sites; Pjazza Jean De Valette vis-a-vis the upcoming MUZA project, the Covered Market, Strait Street and the Old Civil Abattoir (il-Biccerija). Cultural infrastructure is currently being planned within these sites in view of Valletta 2018 (in the short-term) and wider urban regeneration objectives (in the longer term). This research aims to gain an informed understanding of how people behave and make use of the sites under study through behavioural patterns and other influences contributing to the vitality of the spaces. A wider understanding of how the four case studies have come about through planning history and controversies, in light of the upcoming infrastructural developments for Valletta 2018, contextualises further the results obtained through observation. An inductive approach is adopted to suit the research inquiry whereby the participants (or rather, the observed) take centre stage and act as the basis for the researcher to form broad themes and then generate theories which interconnect them. A multitude of tools are used to ensure data credibility and reliability. Pedestrian counting, note-taking and photography were essential during observation stage whereas semi-structured interviews with direct stakeholders, seminal to the cultural infrastructure projects, facilitated an understanding of the sites' future. Content analysis and manual coding were indispensable for the management and representation of the collected data. The results obtained shed light on the lack of a holistic vision with respect to planning for cultural infrastructure within Valletta, further outlining the physical disconnection between the four projects. The sites' built environment impacted behavioural traits within the spaces along with other influences such as traffic, climatic conditions and land use. Ultimately, the study emphasises the unique character of the four sites through the data gathered.