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COMPLETED, 2024
STATUS
VALLETTA, MALTA
GHANA, ACCRA
LOCATION
VALLETTA
ACCRA
DAVID KOJO DERBAN
ANN DINGLI
GUILLAUME DREYFUSS
AP VALLETTA
COLLABORATORS
Setting out a transcontinental
inquiry between
Valletta and Accra
Transcontinental research inquiry comparing two heritage systems: interrogating colonial legacies and urban identity through on-site observation, writing, and speculative design.
COLLABORATORS
David Kojo Derban
Ann Dingli
Guillaume Dreyfuss
AP Valletta
AWARDS
Architectural Review Future Projects Winner
‘New into Old’
Architectural Review Future Projects
Highly Commended ‘Overall’
Valletta Accra was a travelling research project – the first in a series of studies comparing aspects of Valletta’s heritage with cities across the globe that offer a relevant observational prompt. The pilot project was authored together with David Kojo Derban and Ann Dingli and launched in November 2023 as part of the Arts Council Malta’s International Cultural Exchange programme. The project set out a transcontinental inquiry between Valletta and Accra – two port cities shaped by colonial occupation and mercantile ambition. Working through edited methodologies of psychogeography and critical dialogue, the project positioned ‘comparison’ as a critical research instrument rather than a neutral mirror.
Through parallel observation – or what the team referred to as ‘object parallax’ – the project developed a research methodology that registered heritage as an active, evolving transcript of urban, social, and economic life. Valletta Accra sought to interrogate heritage’s capacity to resist, absorb, or transform in relation to native cultural expression, asking how inherited fabric might evolve in service of contemporary identity and ambition.
The project’s first on-site workshop took place in Jamestown, Accra, followed by a photographic exhibition at the Malta High Commission of Ghana, establishing a visual and analytical departure point. A second field trip to Valletta in March 2024 extended the research and was followed by a public work-in-progress lecture that opened the project’s discussion points to a wider audience. The project culminated in a publication launched in Accra in April 2024. Valletta Accra – A Dialogue Between Mercantile Cities unfolds in two parts: the first comprises four written and a photographic essay, the second takes the form of a speculative design proposal for the Osu Salem Presbyterian Primary School in Accra. Founded in 1843 and built in 1865, the school becomes a testing ground for a regenerative approach grounded in close reading, critical learning, and spatial action. Here, design brings to life the study’s methodological blueprint, creating a transferable, scalable model for heritage regeneration rooted in context and lived continuity.
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