Property, Land, and Race in the Colonial Built Environment: An Interview with Itohan Osayimwese

Abstract

Itohan Osayimwese is an architectural historian at Brown University whose work focuses on the impact of colonialism on the built environment, with particular attention to the creation of racial difference in urban and architectural spaces. In this interview with Rixt Woudstra, she discusses her trajectory as a scholar—touching on her first book, Colonialism and Modern Architecture in Germany (2017), as well as more recent projects such as the Routledge Critical Companion to Race and Architecture, which she is editing with Felipe Hernández. One specific theme is the challenge of conducting research on architecture in the colonial context; Osayimwese points to the limits of the colonial archive and the discusses the possibilities that disciplines like archaeology might offer architectural history.