Algorithmic Colonialism in Architecture: Decolonising AI for Pedagogy, Research, and Practice, Madhavi P. Patil & Ashraf M. Salama

March 29, 2026

Algorithmic Colonialism in Architecture: Decolonising AI for Pedagogy, Research, and Practice, Madhavi P. Patil & Ashraf M. Salama

Algorithmic Colonialism in Architecture: Decolonising AI for Pedagogy, Research, and Practice
Madhavi P. Patil and Ashraf M. Salama
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Algorithmic Colonialism in Architecture examines how artificial intelligence systems in architectural practice, research, and pedagogy inherit, formalize, and automate colonial epistemologies already embedded in the discipline’s historiography, data infrastructures, and professional norms. Drawing on postcolonial computing studies, decolonising architectural theory, data justice frameworks, and Indigenous data sovereignty principles, Madhavi P. Patil and Ashraf M. Salama provide critical analytical tools for educators, researchers, and practitioners navigating the rapid integration of AI into architectural workflows. The book moves beyond simplistic West/Rest binaries to address intersecting hegemonies, including platform dominance, regional hierarchies, and class-based encoding patterns, while centering Global South scholars and practitioners as active agents in shaping alternative futures. Through taxonomies of AI types, critical exercises, and practical frameworks, this volume equips readers to interrogate algorithmic bias, advocate for epistemic pluralism, and imagine architectures otherwise.

Michael Crosbie interviews Ashraf Salama on possible outcomes in a post-coronavirus world.

How Might the COVID-19 Change Architecture and Urban Design? Ashraf M. Salama, a professor at the Department of Architecture, University of Strathclyde, in Glasgow, Scotland, and the director of the Cluster for Research in Architecture and Urbanism of Cities in the Global South, has been following how these disciplines might be changing. He’s recently written a publicly peer-reviewed paper on some of his findings: “Coronavirus Questions That Will Not Go Away: Interrogating Urban and Socio-Spatial Implications of COVID-19 Measures.” I sat down with Salama to discuss some of the issues he raises, and what their implications might be for the built environment in the future (7 May 2020) (Feature image taken from CommonEdge by Andy Yueng, as part of his “Urban Density” drone series).