Located in the heart of Malta's first business district, The Icon, strives to reflect the duality of its context.

Unlike many structures, The Icon has two facades. The front facade faces direct North and fronts a four-carriageway road with unobstructed views of greenspaces from the higher levels - For this reason the northern or front facade was designed to allow as much of the external world in as possible. The southern facade, on the other hand, fronts a varied use road and the choice of materials was determined by the context. This facade was also receded slightly to incorporate vertical means of escape on the facade. This gesture not only provided visual movement to the facade, but also acts as a social space whilst providing shade to the southern glazed facade

The Icon was designed with the end user in mind. The entrance lobby is left open and sheltered to act as a gathering space, the vertical circulation core was designed to act as a central lung for vertical communication, saturated with sunlight due to the presence of an overlying skylight and a 15metre high green wall. At the higher levels, one can find the presence of three spacious terraces that provide the user with that much needed moment of escape from the busy routines of everyday.

Sean Buttigieg