The department of Architecture and Urban Design recently hosted Professor Paolo Brescia, who was invited to give a series of lectures about the importance of colour in the contemporary architectural scenario to students following the BE&A (Hons.) course.

Accompanying Professor Brescia were Professors Guiseppe Strappa and Mario Ieva from the architecture faculty in Bari who are supervising eight final year architecture students working on an interesting thesis project dealing with the urban texture of Valletta, perceived as the meeting point of architectural theory and project design.

Professor Denis De Lucca, director of the International Institute for Baroque Studies and head of the department of Architecture and Urban Design, explained that the work of the Italian students will form the basis of further collaboration between the architecture departments of the University of Malta and the University of Bari in the fields of urban studies, historical studies, restoration methods using stone, architecture and colour and the exploration of the important link between theoretical knowledge and project work in the teaching of architecture.

Professor De Lucca added that this collaboration will be realised through participation in various academic activities concerned with the above-mentioned topics and through the exchange of staff and students through Socrates programmes.

Also visiting the International Institute for Baroque Studies last week was Professor Lucia Trigilia, director of the Centro Internazionale di Studi sul Barocco of Syracuse, who also teaches architectural history and conservation in the architecture faculty of the University of Catania based in Syracuse.

Professor Trigilia delivered a series of lectures on the Baroque town planning and architecture of the Val di Noto after the 1693 earthquake, focusing on the work of the principal planners, architects and artisans involved in this remarkable exercise which transformed 18th century SE Sicily into a laboratory of different forms of the Baroque expression.

Professor De Lucca said that Professor Trigilia's visit has been planned to coincide with new initiatives of research collaboration between the two institutions, which are both concerned with the study and conservation of the Baroque heritage.