Four essays survey two port cities in parallel ? Valletta, Malta and Accra, Ghana. Their research examines the impact and economic pressures of colonial trade on the architectural evolution of the cities' port areas, the Grand Harbour and Jamestown-Osu, with an aim to re-imagine the future of their built heritage.

Valletta Accra was launched in November 2023 as a travelling research project initiated by architecture firm AP Valletta with David Kojo Derban and Ann Dingli, as part of the Arts Council Malta's International Cultural Exchange programme. The aim was to study two capitals across two continents, each holding memory of colonial presence and its wielding of mercantile potential. The team of researchers approached heritage fabric as a transcript of the evolving urban, social, and economic life of two harbour cities ? Accra, the capital of Ghana on the West Africa, and Valletta, the capital of Malta, an island in the Mediterranean - both carrying the imprint of their role as adopted trading strongholds. The comparison of the two cities was positioned as a departure point for a deeper reading of both the colonial and post- colonial experience. In its parallel observation, Valletta Accra questioned how heritage might develop in line with authentic permeations of identity and urban ambition, positioning contrast as a methodology for revelation.

David Kojo Derban has been a chartered Architect and associate member of the Ghana Institute of Architects for the last twenty years. He is a past secretary for public relations of the institute, and the C.E.O of Ethnik International Ltd, a research-based architectural and project management firm in Accra. He holds a Bachelors degree in Architectural Design from the Department of Architecture of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology, Kumasi and an Masters in studies from the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana with key interests in heritage buildings, historiography, and history of architecture in Africa. Derban is an advocate for the preservation of Ghanaian heritage, working on proposals for national forts and castles with the Ghana Museum and Monuments Board, designing regional cultural centers for the National Commission on Culture, and plans for the regeneration of Old Accra for the Ministry of Tourism.