September 4–November 16, 2025
RIBA presents Hill Station: architecture and the altitudes of Empire installation. See how the city of Freetown, Sierra Leone, was shaped by health, architecture, and empire.
Hill Station: architecture and the altitudes of Empire explores the architectural history of colonial-era health segregation in Freetown, Sierra Leone, and its entanglements with the expansion of the British Empire and the emergence of tropical medicine.
In 1899, the newly established Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine sent an expedition to Freetown to investigate malaria prevention. Among its recommendations was the construction of an exclusive enclave of “houses for Europeans” on a plateau overlooking the city.
Combining architectural model work and film, this new installation by Killian O’Dochartaigh and Edward Lawrenson—part of a wider research project Salone Drift—explores architecture, colonialism, and health segregation, and the complex links between the two port cities, Liverpool and Freetown.
Hill Station: architecture and the altitudes of Empire is supported by: Arts Council Ireland, Graham Foundation, University College London, University of Edinburgh/Edinburgh College of Art.
Project by Killian O’Dochartaigh and Edward Lawrenson / Curatorial support and exhibition coordination by RIBA / Film directed by Edward Lawrenson, produced by Edward Lawrenson and Killian O’Dochartaigh, featuring Ibrahim Abdullah. Sound design by Philippe Ciompi / Image by Luciano Piazza and Edward Lawrenson / Model designed by Killian O’Dochartaigh / Fabrication by Killian O’Dochartaigh and Richard Collins.
Join us for the preview evening on Wednesday September 3: register free. Monday to Sunday including bank holidays: 10am to 5:50pm
Killian O’Dochartaigh is an architect and Senior Lecturer at The Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA)
Edward Lawrenson is a filmmaker based in London whose worked has shown at numerous festivals including Sundance, Locarno and Cinema du reel. He currently teaches at UCL.
