Waterfort is a speculative research and design project that repositions Malta’s historic coastal watchtowers as active agents within a future water infrastructure. Developed under The Myth of Abundance’s umbrella research, the project addresses Malta’s chronic potable water scarcity by presenting an insertable system of water cleansing into existing heritage structures, reframing heritage assets as resilient civic resources. Set within the context of a geologically dry archipelago, Malta’s built landscape has long compensated for the absence of surface freshwater through engineered systems – from aqueducts and reservoirs to large-scale desalination. While effective, these interventions have sustained the illusion of abundance, masking the environmental cost and fragility of a system almost entirely reliant on energy-intensive processes. Waterfort responds directly to this paradox, focusing on drinkable water as both a material necessity and a cultural blind spot.

The project uses Torri ta’ Triq il-Wiesgħa – a 17th-century De Redin watchtower near Żabbar, forming part of a defensive coastal network – as its prototype base. The tower is imagined as a solar-powered seawater reverse osmosis micro-plant, producing potable water for local agricultural and community use. With inserted machinery being reversible, the design would serve as a blueprint for neighbouring towers along the islands’ coast.

Beyond technical integration, the project explores systems of collection, storage, and dispersal that foreground low environmental impact, resilience, and community participation. It speculates on hybrid models of automated and manually supported distribution, positioning the site as both infrastructure and social catalyst. As a prototype, Waterfort extends its ambition beyond a single tower, proposing an entire infrastructure of reactivated heritage buildings newly serving a country’s primary need. In doing so, it reframes Malta’s military architecture as a contemporary landscape of sustenance, with defence giving way to environmental adaptation.