The glass towers in emerging megacities serve as symbols in their reflective modern cityscapes. The business districts of Jakarta and the tech corridors of Bengaluru display identical sleek façades and reflective surfaces throughout their areas. The architectural language that combines minimalism with sophistication now functions as a worldwide indicator of advancement. The gleaming exterior of this architectural style conceals a hidden contradiction; it demonstrates how Western design principles rule environments where they should not exist. The concept of climate colonialism in architecture describes the practice of forcing temperate-climate building models onto hot tropical regions resulting in negative impacts on environmental and cultural sustainability.
The Legacy of Modernism: A Globalised Aesthetic
Western modernism left behind a standardized visual language consisting of concrete, steel, and glass postcolonial cities which lacked connection to their natural environments and local cultural traditions. During the post-independence period, numerous former colonies adopted this aesthetic to symbolize their advancement toward global standards and their move away from traditional, historical heritage. Western-trained architects who returned home designed buildings that duplicated Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe’s minimalist style instead of incorporating local traditional architectural elements (Till, 2009).
The designs originated from environments that differ completely from their current locations. The mass adoption of glass façades across different contexts has created a standardized urban environment that disregards traditional knowledge accumulated over centuries. The acceptance of Western architectural forms in inappropriate regions serves as a direct manifestation of climate colonialism in architecture.
Glass Boxes in Hot Cities
The glass box represents an environmental contradiction when used in tropical areas. The glass box design actively increases energy consumption instead of lowering it. The extensive use of glass in buildings creates heat gain which requires buildings to use extensive air-conditioning systems to achieve thermal comfort. Singh, Mahapatra and Atreya found that glass buildings in Delhi reach interior temperatures exceeding 50°C when no cooling systems are in operation. The outcome of this design approach leads to dependency that requires electricity consumption, cooling systems, and expensive maintenance protocols.
Loss of Cultural Identity
The architectural effects of climate colonialism extend beyond the inefficient thermal performance of buildings; it erodes cultural identity. The glass tower design stands as a complete opposite to the interactive, layered, and porous buildings that exist in the Global South. The traditional Indian architectural approach uses courtyards to direct wind, jaalis to filter sunlight, and verandahs to create transitional areas between indoor and outdoor spaces.
Greenwashing the Glass Box
The Global South has seen numerous contemporary buildings adopt green certification systems through LEED and GRIHA. The guidelines provided by these frameworks hold value but they were developed using assumptions that stemmed from temperate-climate environments. The standards-based glass building design fails to deliver practical energy efficiency because its design fails to match local environmental conditions.
Rethinking Sustainability through Decolonised Design
Architects need to break away from simple imitation to develop designs that focus on climate-sensitive approaches and cultural preservation to dismantle climate colonialism. The first step toward this change involves restoring the validity of local materials including laterite, bamboo, and lime plaster alongside indigenous forms that developed over generations. Design pedagogy needs to undergo a fundamental transformation. Architecture schools need to provide students with training that includes global standard achievement, and the development of critical thinking skills to modify and discard standards when needed.
The development of sustainable architecture requires architects and planners to create buildings that respond to the climate characteristics of specific locations instead of blindly adopting foreign “green” solutions.
The glass box myth creates an illusion that displays worldwide ambitions yet disregards actual local conditions. The architectural decisions made now will establish the destinies of millions as the climate crisis intensifies. The practice of sustaining an unsustainable model under the guise of progress amounts to climate injustice while being short-sighted. The practice of climate colonialism in architecture requires identification followed by opposition and substitution. The approach should be based on innovation which stems from context rather than nostalgia. A sustainable architectural solution for the Global South cannot emerge from borrowed design elements.
References:
Chakrabarti, V. (2013) A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America. Metropolis Books.
Singh, M.K., Mahapatra, S. and Atreya, S.K. (2010) ‘Thermal performance study and evaluation of comfort temperatures in vernacular buildings of North-East India’, Building and Environment, 45(2), pp. 320–329_© https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2009.06.009.
Till, J. (2009) Architecture Depends. MIT Press.
