Constructing Coloniality: British Imperialism and the Built Environment

Over the weekend of 12–14 May 2023, The Bartlett School of Architecture will host The Society of Architectural Historians of Great Britain (SAHGB)'s annual confefrence. This year's three-day conference is titled 'Constructing Coloniality: British Imperialism and the Built Environment'. The event will take place at The Bartlett's central London campus, run by SAHGB in collaboration with UCL and the London School of Architecture. 

The main conference, taking place on Friday 12 May and Saturday 13 May, focuses on the coloniality of architecture and built heritage in relation to the British Empire. It will cover the period from the early years of colonial expansion and the escalation of the slave trade in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, through the physical and political force wielded in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the development of racial capitalism, to the subsequent and ongoing struggles for independence, freedom and justice.

The conference is preceded by a drinks reception at 18:00 on Thursday 11 May in the foyer of The Bartlett School of Architecture, followed by Professor Nnamdi Elleh’s pre-conference keynote lecture titled 'Decolonising Decolonisation: Ideological Continuity and Discontinuity in Colonial and Postcolonial Imaginations of Modernity'.

The weekend concludes with a series of optional walking tours around London on Sunday 14 May 2023, where the role of architecture in constructing coloniality can be explored first-hand. 

Conference topics cover: 

Session 1: The Architectural Grasp  
Session 2: Militarised Spaces of Empire 
Session 3: Networks of Trade and Industry 
Session 4: Objectives of Empire 
Session 5: Infrastructures of Life and Land 
Session 6: Postcolonialism and its Heritage 

Visit the SAHGB website for the full programme and details of events.

You can also click here to download the full conference programme.

Registration fees apply:

Standard place: £75
UCL or LSA Staff: £40
SAHGB Member: £40
Student place: £30

Registration is now open:

Register to attend

Image: The Destruction of the Roehampton Estate in the Parish of St. James's in January 1832, 1833 (hand coloured litho) 
Creator: Duperly, Adolphe (1801-65). Credit: Photo © Christie's Images / Bridgeman Images