Valletta Waterfront will be holding a series of free evening architecture talks entitled “Architecture Nights”. Organised by Kamra Tal-Periti (Chamber of Architects), and supported by VISET Malta, the operators of Valletta Waterfront, the aim of these talks is to encourage public debate about good design and quality in architecture.

The series, based on the theme “Identity of Place”, starts on Saturday with Kevin Radford and Gergana Draganova, two senior architects and urban designers from Building Design Partnership, a leading and major award-winning London-based architectural firm.

They will discuss the manner in which their projects have created a “sense of place” and have given soulless, disjointed and physically fragmented places a new “identity”. They will also discuss how their buildings have become strong focal points and given a new identity to the surrounding spaces, as well as an identity to the users of the buildings themselves and the urban public realm.

Mr Radford and Ms Draganova are qualified both in architecture and in urban design, and have worked on projects in London, China, Portugal, Ireland, The Netherlands, Bulgaria and the current celebrated Waterfront City in Melbourne, Australia, which shall be presented in detail on the night, together with the La Seyne Sur Mer project in Toulon, France and Hampden Gurney School in London.

A further three events will be held, one each month until November, aimed at exposing the public to examples of good successful design and contextually conscious projects in terms of environmental benefits, social promotion and inclusion and economic regeneration. These will feature speakers from three award-winning architectural practices based in the UK together with Malta's Professor Richard England.

The second event, on 16 September, will feature Riet Eeckhout and Llewelyn Davies Yeang.

Professor Richard England will host the October debate. This debate will coincide with the “Time for Architecture” event running throughout the first two weeks of October.

Simon Erridge, director of Bennetts Associates Architects will bring the series to a close on Saturday 4 November.