Maltese firm Valentino Architects wins World Interior of the Year

VALENTINO ARCHITECTS speak to Lara Zammit about their residential project La Serenissima which won the award for Overall Interior Residential Project at the 2022 World Architecture Festival in Lisbon.

Valentino Architects’ La Serenissima was named overall winner in the Interior Residential (Single Dwelling) category of the World Architecture Festival 2022, held in Lisbon between November 30 and December 2.

The project is a retrofit residential design that updates a 1990s house located in Attard, originally designed by the modernist artist and interior designer Frank Portelli.

“We inherited a remarkable building to work with,” Valentino Architects say.

“Portelli’s original design and fabric of La Serenissima gave us the grounding to create a successful retrofit project. The fact that we were able to adapt the existing space to accommodate modern-day living, nearly 30 years after the original building had been constructed and to wholly a different programme, speaks to its inherent design durability and DNA.”

Interior views from Valentino Architects’ La Serenissima.

The team endeavoured to push for conservation at all levels of the building, from ensuring they disturbed the overall...