Hill Station: Architecture and the Altitudes of Empire
IJ: this is well worth viewing if you’re at the Rotterdam Architecture Film Festival 26:
Edward Lawrenson , Killian O’Dochartaigh
About the installation
In 1899, the newly established Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine sent an expedition to Freetown, Sierra Leone, to investigate malaria prevention. Among its recommendations was the creation of an exclusive enclave of ‘houses for Europeans’ on a plateau above the city, where the altitude would protect colonial settlers from the perceived dangers of the tropical environment. Hill Station: Architecture and the Altitudes of Empire traces the architectural history of this colonial settlement and its entanglement with the expansion of the British Empire and the emergence of tropical medicine. At the core of the installation are the ways ideas about health, race, climate, and disease became embedded in the built environment as well as the complex links between Freetown and Liverpool, two major port cities connected by colonial maritime trading networks.
film details
European premiere
DirectorEdward Lawrenson, Killian O’Dochartaigh
CountryUnited Kingdom
Year2025
Runtime29 Min.
LanguageEnglish
SubtitlesGeen
TypeMixed Reality Installation
film credits
With the cooperation ofLeonisha Barley, Richard Collins, Ibrahim Abdullah
Transnational Architecture Group 