ritchie*studio won an international architectural competition to masterplan and reimagine the listed Farsons Cisk brewery in Mriehel, Malta. The client’s ambition was for a place combining heritage and modernity, a mixed use environment where commerce, culture and industrial history would coexist harmoniously and attract the next young Maltese entrepreneurs, international organisations and tourists.

The transformation of the 7,000m2 Art Deco style brewhouse into a versatile composition of spaces, retaining its distinct ambiance as a former gravity-fed brewery and the creation of six new landscaped courtyards, separating seven new low-rise stepped mixed-use buildings covering 15,000m2 beyond the retained 200-metre long Art-Deco colonnade achieved this.

New openings within the old brewhouse have transformed the dark interior into interconnected spaces bathed in natural light creating co-working spaces, microbreweries, meeting rooms and cafés and an experiential brewery museum.

The buildings cover only 43% of the site, and the courtyard gardens offer a sensory haven to be enjoyed by occupants and the public.

The gardens were conceived around orchard fruit of varying hues and incorporate external shared vertical circulation cores that echo these colours to provide clear orientation. South and north colonnades complete the composition providing walkways across and at all levels. These and the many terraces created afford beautiful panoramic views across the island.

Trident Park’s sustainable architecture embodies centuries-old vernacular environmental practices by integrating thermal mass, cross-ventilation, ample levels of glare-free daylighting, and rainwater reservoirs for the landscape.

The ambition was to create workspaces requiring no air conditioning. This was achieved using east/west-facing opening windows with vertical brise soleils, each building partially shading its neighbour, and a Thermally Active Building System using 16-17 degrees Celsius water cooling the floor slabs overnight and significantly reducing the energy required. The structural slabs are ceilings and, devoid of intrusive fittings provide a ‘Zen’ surface that reflects glare-free light from our bespoke uplighters.

The project achieves a 55% reduction in carbon footprint compared to Malta’s current standard, uses locally-sourced materials for the buildings’ structures, delivers very low-maintenance demand while Life Cycle Analysis shows a 73% reduction in operational and a 60% reduction related to renewal/repair in carbon emissions. On-site solar energy fulfils all mechanical plant electricity demand. The project is awaiting final BREAM Excellent certification.

The buildings have been conceived with a range of lettable space, from entire 5-floors to areas of 200m2, and future proofed for use as residential apartments, live/workspaces, hotels, or combination. The diversity of companies from creative start-ups to government organisations is a testament to the project’s success.

It was a heritage and landscape led design and has been recognised with several international awards, but this could be its first for landscape and architecture.

• Other landscape architecture offices involved in the design of the landscape:
ritchie*studio: Architect / Interior Design / Masterplanning / Landscape
Joseph Borg: Landscape Consultant

• Architecture offices involved in the design:
ritchie*studio: Architect / Interior Design / Masterplanning

• Other credits:
Client: Simonds Farsons Cisk PLC and Trident Park Ltd (subsidiary of Trident Estates PLC)
Structural and Civil Engineer, Planning Consultant: TBA Periti
Cost Consultant: Equals Consulting (London) and Sphere Projects (Malta)
Environmental Engineer: Doug King Consulting
Lighting Consultant: Ulrike Brandi Licht
Building Services and Fire Engineering Consultant: CASAinginiera
Transport Consultant: ERSLI Consultants Limited and AIS Environment
Acoustic Engineer: Gillieron Scott Acoustic Design
AV Consultant: Sarner International Ltd
Brand Design, Merchandise & Marketing: BRND WGN / DNA Studio / Logix Creative Ltd
Catering Consultant: Ingo Wessel
Heritage & Exhibition Design: The Exhibitions Team / RFK Architects Ltd
Health & Safety Consultant: Resolve Consulting Limited
Wayfinding Consultant: Urban UX
Interior Design – Cisk Tap & The Grist: Openworkstudio and Forward Architects
Interior Design Farsons Brewery Experience: RFK Architects Ltd
Interior Design – Kettles Café, The Chapels Gastrobrewpub & Farsons Brandstore: DAAA Haus
Interior Design – Brewhouse Reception, Heritage Hall & Redler Room: DSTUDIO

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