From the Din l-Art Ħelwa Archives – George Camilleri

From the DIN L-ART ĦELWA ARCHIVES

By George E. Camilleri

THE DIN L-ART ĦELWA ARCHITECTURE PRIZE

The centenary of the birth of James Quentin Hughes was commemorated in a symposium, ‘Quentin Hughes (1920–2004)—A Tribute to a War Hero, Architect and Historian’, organised by Palazzo Falzon Historic House Museum and the Department of Art and Art History of the University of Malta (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv09-WpDU38&feature=youtu.be).

Quentin Hughes, as he was generally known, first came to Malta in the war years and had a dramatic war record being awarded the Military Cross and Bar. In 1968 Hughes was seconded by Liverpool University to start a School of Architecture at the then Royal University of Malta, becoming the first Professor of Architecture in 1970. A change in the political climate led to Hughes returning to England and his alma mater Liverpool University in 1973. I cherish a signed copy of his 1964 book Seaport on the architecture and townscape of Liverpool. He was very supportive of the newly formed Din l-Art Ħelwa and collaborated in furthering its aims. His 1956 book, The Building of Malta, based on his PhD thesis, is still a major contribution to Malta’s architectural history.

A letter of 29th December 1969 in the Din l-Art Ħelwa archives from Professor E. J. Borg Costanzi refers to plans between Hughes and Din l-Art Ħelwa founder president, Maurice Caruana Curran, for a proposed Din l-Art Ħelwa prize for architecture students. The turmoil in the University’s educational system and Hughes’s return to Liverpool delayed the eventual establishment of the prize. It was a prize of £50 for the best architectural design drawing at the annual examinations, and was first presented at the degree conferment ceremony in October 1973. The prize for 1975 went to students Ray Agius and Paul Gauci. The changes in the educational system occurring during this period prompted Din l-Art Ħelwa to recommend changes to the regulations, with emphasis on the best measured drawing of artistic and architectural importance in Malta. The high standard of the drawings submitted encouraged the holding of a successful exhibition at the Din l-Art Ħelwa headquarters. There was close cooperation in the adjudication of the Prize with Professor Karol Kaldarar (1930–2019), then head of the Department of Architecture. In 1990 after another period of change at the University, Professor Denis De Lucca, then head of the Department of Architecture and Urban Design, wrote to Maurice Caruana Curran, who was then also Chancellor of the University, suggesting a revival of the prize with wider scope to include a rehabilitation project or a new architectural intervention sympathetic to a particular environment. The archives at Din l-Art Ħelwa shed no further light on the prize. n

George Camilleri is a retired dental surgeon and former dean of the Faculty of Dental Surgery at the University of Malta. He is now researching the history of dentistry in Malta and is a volunteer archivist at Din l-Art Ħelwa.