Reclaiming Colonial Architecture awarded 2025 Colvin Prize

Reclaiming Colonial Architecture, a book co-edited by Melbourne School of Design’s Dr Stuart King together with the University College London’s Professor Tania Sengupta, has been awarded the Society of Architectural Historians Great Britain’s 2025 Colvin Prize for outstanding works of reference in architectural history and heritage.

The decision came in December 2025 after a multi-stage judging process. Winning works are evaluated based on originality, impact, rigour and communication.

The book aims to function as a guide to understanding and addressing colonial inheritances in the built environment today. It unpacks the built inheritances of colonialism and re-thinks how we might understand, narrate, intervene in or act upon them as architects and showcases how legacies of colonialism are being dealt with in real-world instances.

Featuring essays by 45 authors, from across all continents, the judges admired the geographic range of the work, the intellectual rigour and ambition of the contributions, the ways in which original and sophisticated arguments were presented clearly and engagingly, and the very high production values.

Given the breadth of work featured, they noted that although diffuse in approaches and topics, the book stands well as a whole and serves as a key work of reference that sets out the latest thinking in this area, whilst maintaining a broad appeal not only among academic historians but also to students, those working in practice and to the wider public.

The judges for the 2025 Colvin Prize included:

Dr Alistair Fair (The University of Edinburgh) (Judging Panel Chair)
Sarah Akigbogun (Studio Aki Architects)
Helen Iball (Birmingham City University)
Dr Kate Jordan (University of Westminster)
Prof. Adam Sharr (University of Newcastle)
Dr Matthew Wells (University of Manchester)

The Colvin Prize is named in honour of Sir Howard Colvin (1919-2007), a former president of the Society. Colvin ranks among the most eminent and influential scholars in architectural history of the twentieth century.

More information about the prize and past recipients can be found at the Society of Architectural Historians Great Britain’s website.