You are kindly invited to the seminar organized by the Department of Urban Design and Landscape Architecture.
Guest Lecturer: Ecem Sarıçayır
Title: The South Caucasus Borderlands at the Turn of the Century: Russian Settler Imperialism in Batumi
Place: FB 309
Date & Time: May 22, 2026, 11.30-12.30
The presentation will take place in person; however, participants who wish to attend online may join through the Zoom. To request event details please send a message to department.
Abstract
Batumi, an Adjarian seaside town in the Georgian Black Sea, is a popular resort town for Russian-speaking communities and neighboring countries, with temporary visitors far outnumbering year-round residents. Although the scholarship predominantly focuses on the Soviet period to trace the development of the Black Sea coast for tourism, Batumi’s development into a holiday destination emerged in the late 19th century, when Batumi was annexed from the Ottoman Empire by the Russian Empire following the last Russo-Ottoman War (1877-78). After the annexation, Batumi underwent significant change, which included the displacement of communities, the introduction of new plants and landscapes, and the settlement of Russians in the area. Moreover, the surroundings of Batumi were built with dachas and gardens, as well as a city garden and a seaside boulevard, while further plans were made for sea baths, resorts, and a botanical garden at the turn of the century. Writing the imperial history of tourism infrastructure inherited and later developed by the Soviet Union, this study examines the Russian modernization of Batumi and points out the role of property relations. To investigate the region’s spatial development, the talk looks at postcards, archival illustrations, and maps, as well as newspapers and essays from the period. It shows that these designs, operating simultaneously at the intersections of agricultural work and leisure, were initially carried out by settler property owners. This analysis thus suggests a distinct Russian imperialism and settler architecture in the South Caucasus borderlands at the turn of the twentieth century that generated a more than a century-long impact for the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus.
Bio
Ecem Saricayir is an architect and 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 PhD in the History of Architecture and Urban Development from Cornell University in 2024 and completed her postdoctoral research at the Institute of Mediterranean Studies, Greece, in 2026.
Saricayir is currently working on her book, Disputed Property: Architecture and Nation in the South Caucasus, which offers a critical adjustment to architectural discussions of modernity and nation-building beyond the West by pointing out the often-overlooked role of property relations and reinserting the agency of citizens in the political and spatial transformations. Her other works further investigate the relationship between architecture and property, architectural authorship in the modern movement, and jurisdictional challenges in architecture.
She has published articles in The Journal of Architecture and Footprint and chapters in edited volumes. Her artistic work was shown at BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht, and the Istanbul Biennial, as well as, most recently, at the International Architecture Biennial in Rotterdam. Her research was supported by numerous awards and grants, including those from the Graham Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the Canadian Center for Architecture, and the Social Science Research Council. Saricayir holds an MA in Design from Kadir Has University and a BArch from Istanbul Technical University. She previously taught at Cornell University and the University of California, Santa Cruz, and currently teaches at the California College of the Arts.