The 2023 SAHGB conference takes as its theme the coloniality of architecture and heritage in relation to the British Empire, from the early years of expansionism 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 five episodes of this mini-series are now available. In the first episode of this mini-series we spoke to Julie Willis and Soon-Tzu Speechley about their paper Professional entanglements: British colonial networks of architecture, which considers the complex connections and hierarchies between architects working in south-east Asia during the colonial period.

In the second episode we spoke to Mark Crinson about his reading of the architectural historian Anthony King, whose approach to architecture, coloniality and empire were formed through a complex relationship to different disciplinary traditions, and has much to tell us today about how to write architectural histories of empire.

In the third episode we spoke to Ola Uduku about her work on the relationship between empire and the built environment in West Africa. We discussed how different forms of colonial and imperial government shape architectural production and the complex cultural manifestations of imperial architecture before, during and after formal colonisation.

Mira Rai Waits is our contributor for the fourth episode, speaking about her research into police station buildings in British India, and their role in colonial histories.

The final episode features Sonali Dhanpal discussing public statuary, its layers of symbolism, and the questions of historical and cultural accuracy, especially in locations such as Mysore.

This podcast is produced by Front Ear Podcasts.