Marcin Piekałkiewicz moved to Malta in 2017 expecting a calm Mediterranean island known for its natural beauty. Instead, he found an environment dominated by construction: noise, dust, and heavy machinery everywhere, with cranes, bulldozers, and unfinished buildings defining much of the landscape. His book Built on Sand, published by The Eriskay Connection, examines the social, environmental, and spatial effects of rapid real estate development in Malta.

The project is research-based and draws on Henri Lefebvre’s ideas, looking at how capitalism survives by producing and constantly reshaping space. Malta provides a concentrated case: more than half a million people live on just 316 square kilometres. Over the past decade the population has grown rapidly and construction permits have increased. More than a quarter of the island is now covered by artificial surfaces, far above European averages, and agricultural land is increasingly converted into building sites. Land prices have soared, placing enormous pressure on limited space.

Limestone plays a key role. It is Malta’s primary natural resource and the foundation of its construction industry; quarrying has caused serious ecological damage and increased pollution, making life near extraction sites more difficult. Meanwhile, tourism presents Malta as an untouched paradise, an image that hides the everyday struggles of residents and migrant construction workers, many of whom face unsafe conditions and low wages.

Marcin Piekałkiewicz contributes both photography and text, and Rob van Hoesel is the designer. The 184-page softcover measures 150 by 220 millimetres, and the project is supported by the Jaap Harten Fonds/Cultuurfonds. Through photography and research, Built on Sand exposes the fragile foundations beneath Malta’s economic success, revealing tensions between development, environmental care, social justice, and cultural heritage on an island where space itself is under pressure.