Architecture and Empire

Architectural History

In this episode we talk about Architecture and Empire. Our contributors discuss how the legacies of imperialism are manifested in the built environment from London to India and Beirut. We talk about the spectacular buildings of the state and the mundane buildings of bureaucracy, as well as temporary displays of imperialism and the educational institutions built by missionaries.

Contributors: Elsie Owusu OBE is a Ghanaian-born British architect, a founding member and the first chair of the Society Black Architects. She co-led the refurbishment of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom in 2009. She has been an elected Member of the RIBA Council since 2014 and was the founding vice-chair of the London School of Architecture.

Shahmima Akhtar is a historian of race, migration and empire. She is lecturer in history at Royal Holloway University of London. She is currently working on the book Exhibiting Irishness: Empire and Identity, 1851-1970 to be published with Manchester University Press in September 2022.

Tania Sengupta is Associate Professor at the Bartlett School of Architecture. Her research explores architectural histories and urbanisms in 'non-western' worlds with a particular focus on the colonial, post-colonial and contemporary architecture of South Asia.

Yasmina El Chami is an architect and a final-year PhD Candidate in Architecture at the University of Cambridge. Her current research examines the intersections of colonial and imperial histories with the production of architecture and the built environment, focusing in particular on missionary educational institutions in Lebanon.

Your hosts were Dr Jessica Kelly and Matthew Lloyd Roberts. For more details on the Society of Architectural Historians and their activities check out the website: https://www.sahgb.org.uk/

Produced by Front Ear Podcasts - www.frontearpodcasts.com