| As promised, here are photos of VDC. We are very impressed with the balance of contemporary and historic aspects the architect has accomplished with this 2018 project. The award winning roof-top garden is a wonderful respite from the dense city that is open to all. The vertical garden continues the greenery into the space, with a retractable glass roof with solar panels atop. There were wonderful choices made here that retained the original space, resulting in irregular sized doors and a few lower hanging obstacles for taller clients - we doubt these choices would be allowed in the U.S. as they would violate codes. As is true throughout the city, accessibility for those with mobility issues is a challenge. This has been dealt with by installing an elevator with stops between floors to avoid stairs to slightly different levels throughout. As requested we made a presentation for a small audience. In previous residencies we have presented our work towards the ends of our stay, sharing the works we created while in residence. This time we were presenting prior to our actual project commencing (our time in Valletta is a "preview" of Maltese culture before our project begins in residence in Gozo). As such we were left to present ourselves, triggering feelings of our lingering "imposter syndrome" that we have never completely exorcised. We opted to show two videos we have prepared for academic conferences. P, unfortunately didn't "read the room" well after the first 20 minute video and gave into our tendency to provide too much material. He launched right into the next 20 minute video that had even more of an academic tone than the first one. Both are good videos but they are densely packed with content and more than a fair share of academic-speak so the effect was a bit deadening upon the audience members who had come straight from work to the audience talk and then were subjected to 40 minutes of video in a darkened room. There were two graduate students who seemed fully engaged. Perhaps this is because they are immersed in academic speak so it didn't phase them or, because they are still emerging |
professionals they are a bit forgiving of programming shortcomings made due to insecurities. Afterwards we engaged in a bit of a postmortem which Andrea joined in and provided confirmation as to what we were thinking: in this case Less is More.