In 2017 Gloria Trevisan and her fiancé Marco Gottardi, young and talented graduate architects from Italy, came to London to find work and were delighted when they found an affordable flat on the 23rd floor of the Grenfell Tower.

Peregrine Bryant LLP had, shortly before the fire, offered a job to Gloria and she had started work with them. The practice was naturally devastated by her death and that of Marco and we mourn the loss of two fine young people whose work was indeed full of promise.

But out of the grim horror of the disaster, we and many others are keen to bring to fruition some small good and to this end are proposing a memorial fund in their name to provide an annual award to help talented young Italian graduates, interested in conservation, as they were, to come to this country to study and work.

Our aim is to raise a sufficient sum to fund an annual award of £7,500. For this we will need to raise in the order of £250,000. The award would offer financial support for travel and accommodation costs and would also provide:

• Work experience in both architectural and structural engineering conservation practices as well as spending time with Historic England, an internship with the National Trust, The Landmark Trust and other bodies involved in the conservation of historic buildings in the UK

• Attendance at relevant conservation courses including the RICS Conservation Course in September and the SPAB Historic Buildings Repairs Course in October

If, as we hope, we are able to raise more funding, we would either provide an additional award or, alternatively, set up a reciprocal award to help young UK conservation graduates to visit and study in Italy.

The idea of this award is supported by the other practices that employed Gloria and Marco during their time in London, their families and friends, and by their University, the IUAV in Venice, with all of whom we are liaising closely in developing this award.

Our intention is to offer the award to a conservation graduate from IUAV in 2018. Applications will be sought early next year with a view to making a final selection in the spring so that the first successful applicant can come to the UK for a two to three month visit to the UK between August and November.