QP

QP is a Maltese design, engineering and management practice that takes a building from the first feasibility study to the last light fitting. Its head office is in Birkirkara, in the middle of the island, and its portfolio runs from a new aircraft parking apron at Malta International Airport to luxury hotel suites in Brussels and a Michelin-starred restaurant in Malta.

For a UK developer, investor or homeowner the attraction is having architects, engineers and project managers under one roof, working from a shared brief. On VisitMalta.co.uk the practice is listed with the architects in Malta, although its scope is much wider than architecture alone.

Who QP is and how it works

QP is a design-led studio built around progressive innovation. It has worked internationally for forty-two years on projects of every size, from feasibility studies, master plans and infrastructure to individual homes and the detailed design of interiors and fittings. Its people are organised around three words that appear throughout its work: design, engineer and manage.

The practice brings its disciplines together early, during concept design, so that architects, structural and building services engineers, cost managers and project managers contribute to the same scheme from the outset. The idea is a single point of responsibility, and the aim is a smoother process for the client with fewer hand-offs between separate firms. Each project is treated as bespoke, with attention to being delivered on time and on budget.

QP also stresses that it wants buildings to earn their keep. Its architects and engineers look for the best use of a site so that a development delivers a sound return to its owners as well as looking good, an approach that suits investors reading our financial services in Malta overview with property in mind.

Design: architecture, interiors and master planning

The design side covers architecture, interior design, master planning and historic renovation. The portfolio includes restaurants such as Caviar and Bull, overlooking St George's Bay, and Bahia, a Michelin-starred restaurant that QP Interiors redesigned with the support of its architecture, structure and building services teams. Hotel work includes Astoria Suites at the Corinthia Palace Hotel in Brussels, a scheme built around curated luxury and timeless elegance.

QP also refurbished the Athenaeum Spa at the Corinthia Palace Hotel and Spa in Attard. The new spa spreads over two floors and about 2,000 square metres, and includes a thermal Vitality Suite with pool, heated marble beds, a sauna and steam room, treatment rooms, a relaxation lounge and terrace, and an indoor pool with a Jacuzzi. Working with the spa designer Goddard Littlefair, the team planned the guest journey so that movement between spaces stays smooth in flow, temperature, lighting and sound. If you are choosing a base for a visit, our Mdina and Rabat guide covers the neighbouring heritage towns, a short drive from Attard.

Larger schemes include the Tigné Point master plan, a forward-looking plan for a prominent peninsula in Sliema, and the Shoreline development, a mixed-use project of around 120,000 square metres. Shoreline combines apartments, penthouses, seven terraced villas with their own entrances and garages, a shopping centre and underground parking, with a large pool and landscaped gardens for residents. Visitors can explore the area through our listing of hotels in Sliema.

Engineering and infrastructure

The engineering side brings together structural and civil engineering, building services, traffic modelling, geomatics, and archaeology and conservation. QP has worked on aviation and infrastructure including Apron X, a new aircraft parking area at Malta International Airport, as well as an air traffic control tower, runway resurfacing and a planned rural airfield. Anyone arriving on the island can plan the journey with our guide to flights to Malta from the UK.

Its engineers also use traffic flow simulation to test how roads and junctions will behave once a development is complete. Historic renovation work in the portfolio includes the Triton Fountain, and the cultural heritage and geomatics team is led by a senior partner, which gives the practice a route into sensitive sites such as those described in our Valletta guide.

Sustainability is built into the engineering offer. QP is a licensed BREEAM organisation with certified Green Associates on staff and works with in-house LEED accredited professionals. It uses simulation software to compare options for energy use, carbon, water and indoor environment, aiming at buildings that cost less to run and meet funding requirements.

Manage: project and cost management

On the management side QP offers project management, cost management and health and safety services. Its stated method places weight on value engineering at the beginning of a project, on checking a brief against market conditions and a feasibility study, on minimising claims by involving stakeholders early in risk analysis, and on a zero defects quality strategy, in which consultants and contractors are managed through a quality control procedure.

The practice has also written about the rising importance of cost management and about collaboration in delivering a major hotel project, which reflects the way its partners describe the work: a client-focused, relationship-driven approach in which the team becomes an extension of the client's own office.

QP Advisory, Consult, Resi and Academy

QP Advisory is a team that provides a global view of commercial real estate investment and the capital markets behind it. Its development management service starts with a feasibility and opportunity value analysis, then builds cost models and financial models, a development area matrix and a development area programme to identify the best mix of uses on a site. It prepares a pre-concept master plan and can help a client find partners such as investors, developers, lenders, operators or tenants, with a business plan to support the approach.

QP Consult is a consultancy of specialist advisers in building construction and infrastructure. QP Resi looks after bespoke home building, with the aim of making the process effortless for the owner. For anyone planning to live in Malta, our relocation guide for UK buyers gives useful background before you commission a home. QP Academy is a learning unit that goes beyond ordinary training to work on employee performance and development.

More of the portfolio

Hospitality is a long-running strand. QP has worked on Corinthia hotels in Lisbon, Tripoli, Bucharest, London and Budapest, on Palazzo Ignazio, and on the Burj Khartoum Hotel. Food and drink projects include Josephine's alongside the restaurants already mentioned, and the Fortina Hotel and Residences scheme is a mixed-use development.

Commercial and civic work includes the Parliament of the Government of Malta, the Bank of Valletta head office, Palazzo Conte, a fairs and convention centre, the Life Sciences Park and an international logistics hub. QP has also worked on Manoel Island, Medina Tower, the planetarium for the Malta Council for Science and Technology and the stage for the Isle of MTV event, and on a sustainable community in Janzour, Libya. Visitors interested in the island's big sights can browse our things to do in Malta page, and our where to stay in Malta guide helps with choosing an area.

The Shoreline brief is a good example of the practice's aims: a residential address with well-balanced indoor and outdoor areas, designed as a place to switch off from a fast, digital world. QP was engaged from the very start to lead and deliver it.

The people and the offices

The leadership is named on the website: Reuben Xuereb is Chairman and CEO, and the senior partners are Ramon Fenech (also Chief Operating Officer), Cedric Caruana for finance, Claire Bezzina for architecture design, Claude Perini for interior design, Nathan Vella for structural engineering, Kenneth Fonk for building services engineering, Robert Paul Galea for project management, Sandro Schembri for cost management and Edward Calleja for cultural heritage and geomatics. Sena Denis Altuntas, an associate partner, handles business development enquiries.

Beyond the head office in Birkirkara, QP has offices at Whitehall Place in London, in Tripoli, in Brussels and in Dubai. Its work stretches across Malta, Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Before a visit to the island, our introduction to Malta is a helpful read.

The practice does not publish fees or opening hours. The simplest first step is to explain your site, budget range and timescale. Use the VisitMalta.co.uk enquiry form on this page and we will pass your message to QP, who will reply to you directly.