Etien Santiago is a historian of modern architecture and construction.

He researches the social and political implications of twentieth-century architects’ attempts to use advanced building materials and technologies, with a focus on concrete and mass-produced housing.

In 2026, Yale University Press will publish his first book, A Barrage of Houses: World War I and Mass-Produced Housing for France. It retraces how World War I ignited and shaped modern architects’ search for mass-produced housing based on innovative construction techniques. This research has been supported by grants from the Canadian Centre for Architecture, the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard, and the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard.

Etien previously worked at several architecture firms including the Renzo Piano Building Workshop in Genoa, Italy. He is a licensed architect in New York.

Ph.D. ; Harvard University ; Architecture ; 2021

M.Arch. ; Harvard University ; ; 2011

B.Arch. ; Rice University ; ; 2008

B.A. ; Rice University ; Architecture ; 2006

2022 Trustee Teaching Award, Indiana University

2021 Founders' Award, Society of Architectural Historians

2016 Distinction in Teaching Award, Derek Bok Center for Teaching at Harvard

2011 James Templeton Kelley Thesis Prize, Harvard Graduate School of Design and Boston Society of Architects

2006 Louis Sudler Prize in the Arts, Rice University

2006 School Medal, American Institute of Architects and Rice School of Architecture

https://etiensantiago.com

ARCH 110 - TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES I

ARCH 210 - HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE I

ARCH 210 - HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE I - HONORS

History of modern architecture and construction, from the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth century

History of mass-produced housing

History of concrete architecture

History of World War I

Etien Santiago. 2025. "New Building Technologies at the 1925 Exposition des Arts Décoratifs." TAD: Technology Architecture Design , vol. 9 , no. 2 , pp. 132-47.

Etien Santiago. 2024. "The U.S. Movement for Mass-Produced Concrete Housing, 1900 to 1924." Construction History , vol. 39 , no. 2 , pp. 23-49.

Etien Santiago. 2019. "Notre-Dame du Raincy and the Great War." Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians , vol. 78 , no. 4 , pp. 454-71.

"Hector Guimard's Visions of Eternal Peace"
ACSA, 2025.

"Revival After the Great War: Rebuild, Remember, Repair, Reform"
First World War Studies, May, 2024.

Etien Santiago. "Huts, Houses, and the Industrial Militarization of France, 1914-1917." In Erin Sassin and Sophie Hochhäusl, eds., "States of Emergency: Architecture, Urbanism, and the First World War," pp. 176-205. States of Emergency: Architecture, Urbanism, and the First World War, 2022.

Etien Santiago. "Bricolage de pointe : Constructions expérimentales dans un contexte étranger pendant la Grande Guerre." In Gilles Bienvenu, Hélène Rousteau Chambon, and Martial Monteil, eds., "Construire ! Entre Antiquité et époque moderne," pp. 969-79. 2019.

Etien Santiago. "The Rough Concrete Surfaces of Perret’s Notre-Dame du Raincy." In Jennifer Bonner, eds., "Still Life," pp. 276-81. Still Life, 2016.

Etien Santiago. "The Super-Urban House." In José Aragüez, eds., "The Building," pp. 98-105. The Building, 2016.