For almost the past two centuries, the dock within Cospicua was treated as an enclave, an industrial complex separates from the community that surrounded it. Cospicua has in fact suffered considerably, both socially and environmentally, from the loss of its waterfront due to the presence of the dock at the end of the creek.
The proposals provide a community centre, offices, retail and catering facilities, an Arts and Crafts covered market and cultural spaces that will generate activity in the area at all hours of the day. The creek just outside the dock will host a yacht marina, and a floating market will be located within the waters of the dock itself where the main piazzas meet. The project includes the restoration of the historic 17th century Knights’ Building and the 19th century British naval workshops, and their conversion into a boutique hotel and a museum of the Grand Harbour respectively.
New interventions will complement the restored scheduled properties to attract new families to the area and entice seafarers to shelter their yachts in the harbor for the longer term. The quays, the piazzas and the roads will be landscaped, divided into nodes that filter the connections from the urban areas to the waterfront zones, and maximizing accessibility between the different residential quarters and the water’s edge.
To stimulate the Three Cities to respond to the changed economic and social realities of today and tomorrow, a new public garden will take root in a site formerly dedicated to heavy maritime industry in tribute to the memory of what was for several decades the economic motor of the island – not a gentrified enclave, but a space to be enjoyed by all.
For the first time in the history of the Three Cities, the project proposes a masterplan for the regeneration of the rightful heart of Cospicua.
Building on the considerable cultural significance of the site and its scenic qualities, the project seeks to revitalise a spectacular, historical setting and the remaining derelict scheduled buildings to create a vibrant urban centre serving as a commercial, cultural and social hub for all ofCottonera.
