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Hitchens' Lobby

Part 1 Project 2021
Ryan Dinsdale-Round
Hull College, | UK
Christopher Hitchens was an English-American socio-political critic and public intellectual. Hitchens described himself as an anti-theist, who saw all religions as false, harmful, and authoritarian. He argued for free expression and scientific discovery and asserted that these were superior to religion as an ethical code of conduct for human civilisation.
Hitchens died of oesophageal cancer in December of 2011. He transcribed his experiences with cancer in his final book ‘Morality’, which he notably describes as ‘resisting‘ cancer, rather than ‘battling’.

Using Bernard Tschumi’s theoretical notion of ‘The Manhattan Transcripts’ - which proposes to transcribe an architectural interpretation of reality - a process of intent emerges from the dissection of Christopher Hitchens‘ life, works, and ideology, to come to a final proposed architectural design.

The design proposes for a Christopher Hitchens Broadcasting & Media Centre to be built as a bastion of free speech and expression in Washington DC, at the heart of Democracy. The proposal embodies Hitchens’ philosophy and will provide thicker foundations of unity and values in American society in light of the recent divide which caused the Capitol riots.


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2021
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