Reclaiming Colonial Architecture

Winner of the Society of Architectural Historians' Colvin Prize 2025.

Our world is full of lands, cities, buildings and artefacts, many of which are deposits and residues of colonial times and, more pervasively, colonial processes. Reclaiming Colonial Architecture unpacks the built inheritances of colonialism and re-thinks how we might understand, narrate, intervene in or act upon them as architects.

Offering historical background, unpacking key concepts and presenting thematically organised and multi-scalar urban and architectural case studies, this accessible publication showcases how legacies of colonialism are being dealt with in real-world instances. Case studies involve works and actions by built environment professionals such as architects and heritage practitioners, as well as community initiatives and activism.

The book aims to build confidence in practitioners, students and communities grappling with a seemingly vast and complex terrain of debates and approaches around colonial landscapes, urban areas, buildings, monuments and material culture. It also aims to be a helpful resource for architecture schools or critical heritage studies departments and organisations. Its content will provide a point of departure for graduate student inquiry and its accessible nature will help introduce undergraduate students to the concepts and questions of colonial built-environments.

Dr Tania Sengupta is Associate Professor and was until recently (2019–23) the Director of Architectural History and Theory at the Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London (UCL). Her research explores histories of built environment in colonial South Asia and global postcolonial contexts, and the inequities stemming from these inheritances today. She received the RIBA President’s Medal for Research 2019, is Co-editor in Chief of the journal Architecture Beyond Europe, and a co-curator of the curricular resource ‘Race’ and Space: What is ‘Race’ Doing in a Nice Field Like the Built Environment? (2020)

Dr Stuart King is a Senior Lecturer in Architectural Design and History, and Program Coordinator for the Master of Urban and Cultural Heritage at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is a member of the University's Australian Centre for Architectural History and Urban Cultural Heritage (ACAHUCH) and undertakes research in nineteenth century colonial architecture in Australia, on topics including colonial public works and architecture, climatic considerations in colonial architecture, material geographies, and heritage.