The colonial imperialism that led to European nations’ partition of the African continent between the nineteenth and twentieth centuries took advantage of the rising modern communication infrastructures and means of transport to control and exploit the new territories more profitably. As in most former colonies, also in Eritrea, ruled by the Italian Government from 1890 to 1941, the introduction of these new transport systems triggered dramatic changes in the cultural landscape, affecting social structures and the use of natural resources, and therefore they had an impact also on traditional building techniques. This contribution aims to outline some outcomes on the vernacular architecture of the processes activated by the road and the railway built along the axis Massawa-Asmara, focusing on the double direction of cultural transfer, explaining the role of communication infrastructure in this specific episode of cultural exchange, and trying to interpret current phenomena.