Projects
- Gozo Museum, Gozo (Mt), Rehabilitation of Modernistic 1950’s building, (Under Construction), 2014
- Garden of Rest, Floriana (Mt) Awaiting Planning Approval, 2015
- Malta Young Sailors Club, Urban Strategy, St Pauls Bay (Mt), Design Development Stage, 2018
- Fort Tigne, Sliema (Mt), Awaiting Planning Approval, 2015
About
Nidum is a collaborative platform for like-minded design professionals who share a similar approach to architecture and urban design, combining individual strengths and experience to develop stronger, more relevant proposals.
At Nidum we seek to reconcile and strengthen the efforts of individuals and public or private institutions related to urban issues, and, where appropriate, operate as an instrument for coordination of these institutions through analysis, debate, development and promotion of ideas. Despite the global struggle to balance the need to develop and the desire to protect, we believe that it is still possible to see the area as a coherent community, where geography and economy are tied together and where, despite hardships, people create something that can still be described as a positive quality of life
Founded in 2014 by Alberto Miceli Farrugia, Christopher Micallef, Joanna Spiteri Staines, Michael Pace, Its establishment reflects their commitment to a collaborative approach to creating a refined, sensitive architecture that is socially and intellectually coherent.
Inheritance | Responsibility | Community
Nidum’s projects display the importance given to theoretical study which informs a structured design process from concept through to detailed design. The resulting layers spatial discovery and tactile connection around the community and its aspirations. Nidium is grounded by the convergence of three ideals: heritage, responsibility, and community.
For our projects to have meaningful and lasting bearing on their communities, they are assembled from a thorough understanding of specific heritage significance (built | natural | cultural | experiential), and of the skills of making. Understanding the past offers fertile ground for transforming the future, and to protect our built and natural heritage is to strengthen our identity. By absorbing the nuances of our inheritance, we create an enduring architecture firmly rooted in its context that is able to survive change in our societies.
Nidum is committed to safeguarding the environment (both natural and built) which suffers the impacts of globalization that often results in an architecture of instant persuasion and consumption giving only slight regard to context and community engagement, an architecture offering at most a sensational and singular experience with little lasting positive influence. For Nidum, every project represents an opportunity to subvert this pervasive mentality, to broaden engagement with the community and to stimulate progressive change within our habitats.
We remain similarly unyielding in our pursuit of an architecture that places the personal experience above all else. Through careful research and an appreciation of the value of the site, our designs are guided by heritage, craftsmanship, community and the environment, traditions and customs to create spaces that display a depth of experience and sincerity.
Architecture builds relationships. Our projects aim to build strong connections with community needs and aspirations, with nature and climate, with context and materials, with culture through time. We achieve this through interdisciplinary collaboration, research and documentation. Each project studies community engagement and personal connection to place and history. Our goal is to strengthen, and even direct, behavioural change to catalyse further initiative.
We aim for an architecture rooted in strong relationships with its past and its present, with the people and the place, while looking forward, triggering relationships which outlive societal change.
In this way, our legacy is that of permanence and plasticity as opposed to temporality and pure exploitation.
Colloborators since 2014
Alberto Collet, Andrew Borg Wirth, Azucena Guerrero, Davide Bardini, Eric Lajoie, Eve Farrugia, James Dingli, Keith Diplock, Jose Garcia Vuelta, Katrina Gauci, Marisabelle Grech, Marta Lombardi, Matthew Scerri, Michael Zerafa, Miguel Pulido Sotelo, Sacha Cutajar
Lectures and Teaching
- Workshop leaders, Christopher Micallef & Alberto Collet, In/visible Void WAVE 2020, IUAV, 2020 Venice (It)
- Lecture, Crossroads of the Mediterranean, IUAV, 2020, Venice (It)
- Lecture, In Transit: the Transformation of the Grand Harbour of Malta, Modern Apulian Style, Taranto (It), 2019
- Workshop Malta & Australia – Two Nations Intertwined, 2019
- Workshop Leader, Gozo Museum Dialogue session with the Artists, 2018, Gozo (Mt)
- Workshop leaders, A week with Christopher Micallef & Alberto Collet Central Park, IUAV, 2018 Venice (It)
- Lecture Building on Memory, IUAV, Venice (It), 2018
Employment
We are continuously looking for passionate and highly motivated individuals. Applications should include a cover letter, in which you are expected to explain your interest in our studio, a CV, a portfolio of works allowing us to easily understand your approach and your capabilities, and, if possible, a recommendation letter. When applying by email please do not exceed a maximum of 10MB of attachments to jobs@nidum.com
2, Melita House
35 Sir Augustus Bartolo Str
Ta’ Xbiex, XBX 1094
Malta
T +356 21343171
info@nidum.com