The Tree of Architecture Revisited, Rethought, and Rejected: Decolonising Architectural Education

Putra, Yvette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8219-1872 (2025) The Tree of Architecture Revisited, Rethought, and Rejected: Decolonising Architectural Education. In: Innovations in Decolonising the Curriculum: Multidisciplinary Perspectives. Emerald Publishing, pp. 61-71. (In Press)

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Abstract

This chapter arises out of the recent shift in architecture towards more critical and global approaches. Outcomes of this shift have included the emergence of counter perspectives in the spaces of discussion and dissemination of architectural thought, previously overwhelmingly Westernised in content and participation, and the decolonisation of architectural education, such as through the diversification and internationalisation of the study of architectural history. Meanwhile, Banister Fletcher’s ‘Tree of Architecture’ has been cited in the scholarship as a potent symbol of architecture’s colonial agenda and Eurocentric hegemony. The Tree’s bigoted and reductive views of non-Western architecture have been critiqued, and attempts have been launched to redress the harm that the Tree and similar thinking have wrought on architecture and its education. This chapter proposes ways of decolonising architectural education, particularly in the specialist areas of history and design, and asserts the benefits of decolonising architectural education. These measures provide students with a truer image of architecture as it has existed and continues to exist and prepare them for more adaptive and ethical architectural practice in a 21st-century, globalised world.

Item Type:	Book Section
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Architectural education; Decolonising the curriculum; Colonialism; Banister Fletcher; Architectural history; Architectural design
Subjects:	N Fine Arts > NA Architecture
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Arts, Culture and Environment
Depositing User:	Yvette Putra
Date Deposited:	04 Nov 2025 14:14
Last Modified:	04 Nov 2025 14:15
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/15496

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