Valletta's covered market, Is-Suq tal-Belt, was built in 1861, the first building in Malta made mostly of iron. Bombing in 1942 destroyed a third of it; the post-war repairs never matched the original, and a 1980s attempt to relaunch it as a fresh foods market slowly failed. By the time we turned our attention to it, the market had been left to decline for decades. We prepared a brief for a public art space here, one that could put the building back at the centre of the city's life.

The proposal had two moves. First, strip out the 1980s accretions, floors and stairs which had carved the original market hall into cramped levels, restoring it to its original vast, uninterrupted volume. Second, insert a single reversible, lightweight structure to carry lifts, building services and a cantilevered upper gallery, sheltering the piazza beneath it while leaving the historic fabric untouched.

The proposal led to a mixed-media architectural exhibition in spring 2012, causing quite a stir in the local media, prompting government to place the market high on their electoral agenda for the next legislature. While none of the proposed functions were adopted, in 2015, the market was leased with view to becoming the new food mecca in town, a far cry from the dynamic, cultural space envisioned by the city's creative community.