Birkirkara, Malta
The Brewhouse and Trident Park by Ritchie*Studio represents a masterful blend of adaptive reuse, sustainability, and cultural preservation where the design team transforms a historically significant brewery into a thriving, mixed-use development, preserving its industrial legacy while incorporating modern amenities and sustainable design principles
The Brewhouse and Trident Park is a mixed-use commercial and heritage retrofit project that reimagines the listed Simonds Farsons Cisk brewery properties in Mriehel, Malta.
The project has been awarded a 2024 International Architecture Award by The Chicago Athenaeum Museum of Architecture and Design and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.
This €80 million project represents the first phase of a new masterplan for the old brewery estate and the wider Central Business District of Malta.
The project began in 2013, achieved planning in 2017, started on site in 2018, and was completed in stages throughout late 2022.
The building was officially inaugurated in the summer of 2023.
The first users occupied the site in Summer 2022, as of November 2023 it is 82% occupied.
The client’s ambition was for a place combining heritage and modernity, an environment where commerce, culture, and industrial history would coexist harmoniously, catering to the next generation of Maltese entrepreneurs, international organizations, and discerning tourists.
This was achieved by restoring and transforming the Art-Deco style building into a thriving, interactive, and versatile composition of spaces, retaining its distinct ambiance as a former gravity-fed brewery.
Fermentation vats have been converted into unique co-working spaces, while old storage spaces have been transformed into microbreweries, museum exhibits, meeting rooms, and cafes where visitors can immerse themselves in Farsons’ renowned hospitality while exploring the experiential museum.
Beyond the retained 200-metre-long Art-Deco colonnade lie Trident Park’s six landscaped courtyards, separating seven new low-rise stepped mixed-use buildings.
The buildings cover only 43% of the site, and the courtyard gardens offer a sensory haven to be enjoyed by occupants, visitors, and the public.
The gardens are designed around orchard fruit of varying hues and incorporate external shared vertical circulation cores.
A key economic benefit of these circulation cores is the significantly higher net-to-gross floor ratio of 95%, surpassing the conventional 80% of traditional office spaces. Not only are fewer lifts required, but access to any floor is guaranteed even should a lift be out of service.
Completing the composition, the shaded south and north colonnades serve as essential routes, providing access across all levels.
Trident Park’s sustainable architecture embodies the centuries-old local, vernacular environmental practices by integrating thermal mass, cross-ventilation, ample levels of glare-free daylighting, and huge rainwater reservoirs.
The ambition was to create workspaces that require no air conditioning.
This was accomplished in part by using east/west-facing windows that open to offer optimum ventilation.
Each building partially shades its neighbor, while their fixed vertical brise soleils create an ever-changing, captivating interplay of light and shadow.
The project has achieved a 55% reduction in carbon footprint compared to Malta’s prevailing standard.
Utilizing locally sourced materials for the buildings’ structure and walls reduced imports while delivering exceptionally low-maintenance structures.
The comprehensive Life Cycle Analysis demonstrates a 73% reduction in operational carbon emissions, and a 60% reduction in carbon emissions related to renewal/repair.
On-site solar energy fulfills all mechanical plant electricity demands.
The architectural layout of the buildings has been conceived to offer a range of adaptable workspace with the potential to transform into live/work spaces, from entire five-floor structures to individual floors.
The diversity of the occupants, from creative start-ups to government organizations, is a testament to the project’s success.
Project: The Brewhouse and Trident Park
Architects: Ritchie*Studio
Design Team: Ian Ritchie, Anthony Summers, Gordon Talbot, Christopher Russell, Karl Singporewala, Tomasz Bąbski, Tania Oramas Dorta, Anthony Grieveson, Jonathan Shaw, and Alexandra Johns
Exhibitions Team: RFK Architects Ltd.
Landscape Consultant: Joseph Borg
General Contractor: Trident Park Ltd.
Client: Farsons Group
Photographers: Joe Smith and Jean Claude Vancell
