Ecem Saricayir

Ecem Sarıçayır is an architect and a historian of architecture and the built environment whose work examines the intertwined histories of architecture and property in West Asia during the modern period. She received her Ph.D. in History of Architecture and Urban Development from Cornell University in 2024 and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Mediterranean Studies in 2025-26. She teaches at California College of the Arts.

Her book in progress, Disputed Property: Architecture and Nation in the South Caucasus, offers a critical adjustment to architectural discussions of modernity and imperialism beyond the West by pointing to the often-overlooked role of property in imperial spatial politics as well as the resistance against it. Her research and teaching interests include the relationship between architecture and revolution; architectural authorship and the modern movement; architecture and property; and postwar homeownership and housing finance in Turkey.