Colonial built environment represents the materialization of power relations and, ultimately architecture produced under colonial rule sets the stage for a complex and, at most times, violent interconnected history where alterity is contrived. This paper seeks to contribute to critical (colonial) heritage studies by conceptualizing contemporary appropriations of colonial heritage and theorizing about how colonial heritage is perceived and/or contested by colonized and colonizers historically and in post-colonial times.

Based on actors, places and spaces built across the old geography of the Portuguese Empire, their history, and the history of the uses they accommodate across time, our analyses will characterize and bring to the discussion several examples from territorial scale to urban fabrics and buildings. By studying and identifying the differences and similarities in how colonial architecture is perceived and appropriated across times and places, such as the Azores archipelago (Portugal), Goa (India), São Tomé (São Tomé and the Principe Republic) and Mozambique Island (Mozambique), we propose a rewriting of colonial architectural history that does not completely change the focus from a primarily imperial point of view to one primarily local, but rather embraces entanglements, interconnecting scales of approach.

Who decides what heritage is in the former colonial territories? How is this heritage perceived nowadays by local and outside eyes? How can research on colonial architectural history contribute to improving local development? Can built heritage be a tool for discussion promoting dialogue between colonial and post-colonial eras? Can colonial heritage ever be decolonized? Ultimately, we wish to come up with answers to these questions, recognizing that community participative processes are a key mechanism for decolonizing collective memory.