Hitchock’s thesis is entitled "Diversifying Delft's rental offering". He says the project, termed “Hindle Road Park”, is an imagination of an avant-garde approach toward housing in the township of Delft in the Western Cape. The design process envisions an improved well-being for residents and visitors by questioning the processes which make up Delft’s existing conditions of ‘home’.
The topic of inhabitation is complex, and the proposal works from research into rental homes, often referred to as ‘backyarders’. By understanding the needs, the design proposition aims to re-calibrate a conventional housing pedagogy. Housing is imagined through the experience of local tenants, owners and developers by a series of spatial lessons which occur when upscaling narrated ways of living in Delft. Hindle Road Park aims to hold these narratives and interrogate the diversity of collective tenancy and building when organised around alternative yards, units and streets.
As the winner of the Corobrik Regional Architecture Award, Hitchock received R10,000, with Sean Mash taking home the second-prize of R8,000, and Oliver Brown receiving R6,000 for third place. A further R6,000 was awarded to Oliver Brown for his innovative use of clay masonry in the building design.
Hitchcock is one of eight young architects from top South African universities receiving a Corobrik Regional Architecture Award in recognition of their design talent and innovation throughout 2019. In addition to the cash prize, the regional competition winners are through to the finals of the National Architectural Student of the year Award – set to be announced in Johannesburg in May 2020 – which comes with R70,000 in prize money.
