Hospital Prison University Radio

Listen to the architect Miguel Lawner telling about his experiences during his detention in various camps in Chile in the 1970s. Lawner was a central figure in Salvador Allende's socialist project in Chile from 1970 to 1973. He was responsible for the planning and expansion of social housing for the Chilean people. When the military took power in a bloody coup in September 1973, Lawner was detained along with thousands of others who had been working for a Socialist Chile. He was moved between various prison camps and ended up in Isla Dawson, an island in southern Chile. During his internment, Lawner began to draw, which was very dangerous and could have had dire consequences if he had been discovered. Lawner drew to document the conditions in the camps and many of the drawings were smuggled out in various ways. Lawner's main project was to document the newly constructed camp at Isla Dawson. This specific kind of drawings, more technical architectural drawings of the camp itself, were simply too dangerous to b