Developers ignoring the effects of pandemic on building industry - FAA

Developers applying for high-rise buildings are ignoring the effect that the COVID-19 pandemic will have on architecture and construction, conservationist NGO Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar has warned.  “International studies indicate that high-rise buildings will become more expensive to build, less efficient and less desirable as companies and families avoid cramped offices and multi-unit residential blocks, having to share lobbies, lifts and corridors with hundreds of others," FAA coordinator Astrid Vella said. "This will reduce the economic attractiveness of investing in tall towers both for offices and residential uses.” In a statement on Saturday, the NGO called on authorities to use this time to plan for a "better, healthier, post-COVID Malta".  It warned that instead of taking stock of the new situation, the construction industry was continuing with business as usual.  "Deafening excavations continued, causing great distress to people stuck at home. As landfills reached capacity, cowboy developers are avoiding dumping charges by illegally dumping thousands of tons of debris in the open countryside, forming veritable rubble hillsides along Żebbuġ’s highly-protected Wied...