Killian Doherty (1976) is a qualified architect interested in the connection between the colonial condition and post-conflict environments. Since 2009, his practice (Architectural Field Office) has been working within in the post-war reconstruction contexts of Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Liberia. 

In 2018 he co-made the short film ‘Uppland’ with Edward Lawrenson, that tells the story of mining a new town built in the remote highlands of Liberia. This film is about architecture, the vestigial remains of colonialism and the spiritual cost of industrial mining. In 2021 Uppland was awarded the Best Film about Architecture by Society of Architectural Historians. Killian’s new research project Salone Drift documents informal sand and rock mining in Freetown alongside its urban growth, tracing the ruinous ecological consequences to the legacy of colonial inequality. This research is funded by the Graham Foundation. 

Killian’s architectural work, teachings and research have been exhibited at the ICA, the Venice Architecture Biennale and appear in Japan Architecture + Urbanism (JA+U), Architectural Review, MAS Context, Footprint: Delft Architecture Theory Journal, VOLUME and ‘Afritecture: Building Social Change. He is currently a lecturer in Architecture and Urbanism at Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, as well as a practice mentor in the Environmental Architecture MA programme at the Royal College of Art, London.

Link to work
http://www.architecturalfieldoffice.org

Link to review of last film project
https://africasacountry.com/2019/05/of-mining-and-myth