A hundred or so people huddled together in the Phoenicia ballroom. An actual, not virtual or distant, symposium celebrating a man born a century before to the day. Science fiction? Today, a few weeks after the symposium, the possibility of such an event is alien, unheard of and illegal. We can hardly fathom how we attended such occasions and whether we will ever do it again.

Quentin Hughes was an architect, a war hero, a lover of Malta, a chronicler of beauty in stone and building. A citizen of the world. A man with a vision for the future but who also knew how to discover, and celebrate, the past. Above all, however, Quentin Hughes (1920-2004) exuded kindness, was full of humanity and had an irreverent sense of humour.

The symposium

Palazzo Falson, in collaboration with the University of Malta Department of Art and Art History, invited a group of speakers to give an insight into this man. Prof. Conrad Thake from the University of Malta was the instigator of the event which he then convened in association with Ms Caroline Tonna, curator at Palazzo Falson in Mdina. Tonna hosted the event seamlessly.

Eight papers were presented and, although one speech was slightly inaudible, they were all riveting and most enlightening.

It's hard not to find Quentin Hughes's amazing mind captivating.

What Quentin Hughes predicted

This is Quentin Hughes writing, together with Peter Richardson, a fellow architect and collaborator, in AR (Architectural Review) back in 1969:

"The greatest problem the Maltese have to face concerns how their island - a mere speck in the Mediterranean Sea - is going to accommodate all the activities that authorities have suggested should be undertaken on it. It seems inconceivable that a mere 120 square miles, and a population of 320,000 people (equivalent to a city the size of Leeds) can possibly encompass all the proposed developments in the way of tourism, of free-port trade and capital intake by attracting expatriates, without a drastic change in the appearance of the Malta which we know."

"Inevitably these will involve a modification of Malta's natural qualities - of her uniqueness as a place which, over the centuries, has developed in a particular way to fight the sheer inhospitability of the terrain."

"This is where planning has to be authoritarian. If we are to preserve areas of natural beauty, controls are essential."

"This survey is concerned with ways in which Malta can be preserved, because what it has now is its greatest value and quite unrepeatable. The unthinkable alternative is that Malta should choose to neglect her heritage and join the development rat-race. Yet she is already trying to do this. If Malta accepts laissez-faire development, the whole island will be obliterated by buildings. And this will take very little time. It will happen unless the planners, architects and the legislators take action very soon. Malta could lead Europe into a new era of environmental and cultural re-evaluation, or it could become, through a laissez-faire attitude, just another blighted area of exploitation."

"The injection of more and more vehicles into the urban areas will create a parking nightmare."

If only we had listened to him. If only we had planned properly.

Malta had a visionary living in its midst who could have helped us develop our country in the right direction.

We first hailed him and appointed him to restructure our department of architecture at university, where he made incredible strides. But, a few years later, national politics and petty rivalries intervened to put pressure and oust him from his position. He actually resigned but why he did has always remained a mystery.  

The Englishman who could have contributed so much lost out to the faux modernisers of Malta. The real loser, of course, was Malta, not Quentin Hughes who remained in love with the island, its stone, its landscape, its architecture and architectural students.

We lost our guru, who could have set us on the right path. Instead we ended up with a land of ancient beauties surrounded by gloriously ugly developments; a land that, as he predicted, is choked with vehicles, too many roads and has had its intrinsic uniqueness gouged out at the core.

As Perit Anton Valentino said in his presentation: "Quentin  predicted that the time when a 'perit' was a jack of two trades, architectural design and structural design, and master of none, was to end, in favour of separate degree courses for the two professions." Hughes had embarked on that change yet, just after he started, when the seeds were being sown, he was ousted.

Today, 50 years later, we have finally realised that Hughes's way was the right one, but not before ruining our country.

Strange way to discover Malta

Dr Roger Vella Bonavita related that Hughes had discovered Malta intimately while stationed here during the war. Hughes had told Vella Bonavita that he "was posted to Malta in 1942 at the height of the siege. Waiting for the invasion that thankfully never came, was the most boring and frustrating time" of Hughes's life.

Vella Bonavita proceeded: "Nevertheless during his free time on the beleaguered island fortress, Quentin visited and sketched many of Malta's architectural gems. He was to put his wartime interest in Malta to good use later."

So, as life often has a funny way of showing us, even a dreadful war with its destruction of lives and architectural gems contributed, in its small way, to an Englishman discovering Malta. When Hughes subsequently settled here, thanks to the research he conducted, the books he wrote and the people he inspired to follow his lead, he contributed no end to the preservation of our heritage. He also helped many appreciate what treasures can be found here.

Vella Bonavita pointed out that what Hughes did to Malta in highlighting and thus helping to preserve our heritage he replicated in Liverpool. In fact, writing in The Independent, the late eminent architect Dennis Sharp of Manchester University said: "Much of the centre of Liverpool remains today because of his (Hughes's) enthusiastic and knowledgeable interest in important existing buildings."  

Historic correspondence

Ms Caroline Tonna discussed an intriguing aspect of Quentin Hughes's correspondence with Olof Gollcher (1889-1962), whose prized collection of art and artefacts is so magnificently displayed at Palazzo Falson in Mdina.

Palazzo Falson was also a prime instigator of this symposium which hopefully will kickstart a few other events in memory of Quentin Hughes.

From the lengthy correspondence between Gollcher and Hughes, Tonna brought out the latter's humanity, thirst for knowledge and his total belief in collaborative work. These two art and heritage lovers discussed, planned, corresponded and collaborated on projects, on cultivating more knowledge and love of all that made Malta unique.

Even as head of the architecture department in Malta, the most important thing he infused in his students - whom he treated more as colleagues - was a sense of conviviality, as attested by one of Hughes's former students, Anton Valentino.

Childlike enthusiasm

Prof. Richard England's paper was not delivered by Malta's architectural doyen himself, who could not be present. Although beautifully read by Nicholas de Piro, England's deep voice and uniqueness was missed. But England's absence was compensated by his piercing, and touchingly personal, memories of Hughes.

As Richard England pointed out, Malta, to Hughes, was a "different place, a place which must be known to be understood, and understood to be enjoyed."

Imagining England, when still a child, sitting on the lap of Quentin Hughes, is the stuff of dreams. Here is England himself relating this gem: "Posted to Malta in 1941, (Hughes) befriended my father and often visited the family's Mellieħa rock-hewn shelter.  I recall a now-lost photograph of myself aged five sitting on Quentin's lap on the shelter's garden drystone walls; an intriguing prophetic déjà vu and precursor of the future close relationship that we were to share later."

For Richard England, Hughes was not just a war hero but a hero in anything connected to life, especially Malta. England summed up Hughes perfectly: "(Hughes) was not only a remarkable pedagogue to myself and many others, but also a person of considerable intellectual and academic stature, overlaid with a childlike enthusiasm and a mischievous twinkle, draped with a witty, wicked sense of humour.  His savant qualities as tutor, advisor, and mentor remain influences in all the annals of my life."

Marquis Nicholas de Piro then highlighted an aspect which is little known about Hughes: his art, especially the scenes of a war-ravaged Malta.

Books maketh the man

Quentin Hughes was the author of many well-researched, well-documented, beautifully illustrated books, which celebrate stone and architecture. He gave us, the Maltese people and the whole world, a true and lasting legacy of what Malta has to offer by way of fortifications, buildings and architecture.

Hughes entrusted Midsea Books with the publishing of one of his most important books: Malta, the Baroque Island. It was co-authored by another of the English architect's good friends and collaborators, Conrad Thake.

Mr Joseph Mizzi, from the publishing house, related how there were a few problems in the book's production especially in the final and most important aspect: the printing and delivery of the book on time for the pre-arranged book launch with Hughes in attendance.

As Mizzi said: "As expected, he (Hughes) came to the office to see the book. I told him what had happened (that there was going to be no book), and, in his usual jolly spirit, he took it quite well and even joked about the thought of holding the 'book launch without the book'!"

By some miracle the books were finalised, flown to Malta and all was well on the night. Quentin Hughes was a perfectionist, but he was a perfect example of how to be practical, unfazed and always ready to laugh at anything.

Following in the mentor's footsteps

Prof. Conrad Thake, author, researcher, architect and heritage-lover had a good story to tell about a man he obviously admired and got on well with.

Hughes passed on to Thake "his handwritten notes and freehand sketches which he had compiled in preparation for his seminal publication, 'The Building of Malta 1530-1795', published in the United Kingdom in 1956. The notebook is replete with notes, observations, cuttings, and annotated sketches of various churches, palaces and other buildings featured in the book. One can surmise that Quentin Hughes was not only an assiduous researcher but a very astute observer and analyst of buildings."

Hughes was inspiration and a mentor to Thake. Like his mentor,  Thake is an astute observer and analyst of buildings and his need to pass on his knowledge shines in the well-researched and beautifully produced books he has authored.

Mr David Wrightson, an architect and photographer, collaborated with Hughes in some of the latter's publications. Wrightson could not attend the event and his paper was read by Dr Charles Paul Azzopardi. Wrightson spotlighted Hughes's immaculate eye for detail in all things architectural and also in photography.

Dr Stephen C Spiteri shone a light on another important facet of Hughes: his study of fortifications. The English architect's seminal book, Military Architecture, was one of the first modern publications which approached the study of fortification from an architectural perspective. According to Spiteri, Hughes "was the first historian to notice, and draw attention to, the importance of various outstanding features encountered in Malta's defensive architecture."

Hughes was amazingly blasé about what he did and achieved and shot down all efforts to make him out to be a hero. But he was a definite source of inspiration and a game-changer.

The morning symposium at the Phoenicia Hotel Ballroom gave us a beautiful glimpse into Quentin Hughes, a wonderful man, historian, raconteur, researcher and hero who would surely set a few things straight on this island were he still living.