Museum of the Northern Cultures, Paquimé, Mexico. Image © Fernando Barragan
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https://www.archdaily.com/1035048/mexican-architect-mario-schjetnan-and-grupo-de-diseno-urbano-awarded-the-2025-oberlander-prize-for-landscape-architecture
The biennial Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize was established to increase the visibility, understanding, appreciation, and dialogue around landscape architecture. The creation of the Oberlander Prize began in 2014, and the most recent laureate was landscape architect Kongjian Yu, the pioneer of the “Sponge City” concept. This year, The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) announced that Mexico City-based landscape architect Mario Schjetnan and his firm Grupo de Diseño Urbano (GDU) are the recipients of the 2025 Oberlander Prize. According to TCLF, Schjetnan belongs to a generation of landscape architects, architects, and urbanists who became aware of the environmental impacts of urban development and their consequences for life, the planet, and its inhabitants. He and the GDU team are the first Latin Americans to be awarded the Oberlander Prize laureate.
Mario Schjetnan, founder of Grupo de Diseño Urbano (GDU), earned his architecture degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM, 1968) and a Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley (1970). In 1977, he established GDU with architect José Luis Pérez, joined by their respective spouses, Irma Schjetnan and Letty Pérez. Since then, the firm has worked extensively in Mexico, Latin America, the Middle East, China, and the United States, developing projects in landscape architecture, urbanism, and architecture. Nearly half of its work focuses on parks, alongside residential developments, post-industrial sites, museums, and other projects.
Bicentennial Park Nature Garden, Mexico City, Mexico. Image © Sergio Medellín courtesy Grupo de Diseño Urbano and The Cultural Landscape FoundationRecognized for advancing urban design grounded in environmental awareness, cultural memory, and quality of life, Schjetnan has promoted a new ethical and aesthetic relationship with the environment. Defining GDU’s philosophy, he emphasized that “the landscape is really about culture” and that every project is “site-specific.” For him, “if you want to develop a site or a new area, you have to start with a park.” Reflecting on his career, he states that his central pursuit is “to improve livability in the poorest sections of Mexico and Latin America to provide social justice and urban equity, and also in the richest sections.” He maintains that there is a “human right to open space.”
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Mario Schjetnan’s work draws from a wide range of influences, including Mexican modernist architects Luis Barragán, Max Cetto, and Mario Pani; landscape architects Roberto Burle Marx and Lawrence Halprin; and artists and writers such as Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, Juan O’Gorman, Carlos Fuentes, and Octavio Paz. Rooted in Mexico’s pre-Hispanic heritage, his designs integrate cultural and ecological values. Before founding GDU, Schjetnan served as the first head of urban and housing design at INFONAVIT (1972–1977), where he oversaw projects in 110 cities across Mexico, producing approximately 100,000 housing units, including 5,000 in Mexico City. His firm’s portfolio includes landmark works such as Chapultepec Park, Xochimilco Ecological Park, and Copalita Eco-Archaeological Park, along with large urban parks created on reclaimed industrial sites like La Mexicana Park and Bicentennial Park in Mexico City.
Xochimilco Ecological Park, Mexico City, Mexico, 2025. Image © Charles A. Birnbaum, courtesy The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Xochimilco Ecological Park, Mexico City, Mexico, 2025. Image © Charles A. Birnbaum, courtesy The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Schjetnan and Grupo de Diseño Urbano were selected from more than 300 nominations worldwide by an international seven-member jury comprising leading landscape architects, urban planners, architects, and academics. The Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize recognizes practitioners who are “exceptionally talented, creative, courageous, and visionary,” with a significant body of built work that exemplifies the art of landscape architecture. Charles A. Birnbaum, President of The Cultural Landscape Foundation, highlighted Schjetnan’s “unwavering commitment to the human right to open space” and his integration of cultural values into design as “foundational requirements in shaping an equitable built environment for all.” The biennial Oberlander Prize includes a $100,000 award and two years of public engagement activities centered on the laureate’s work and the broader field of landscape architecture.
In a time of rapidly developing megacities and cultural homogenization, Grupo de Diseño Urbano (GDU), founded and led by Mario Schjetnan, is a strong voice for social engagement and environmental justice in tandem with the art of landscape architecture. Their work bridges the ethical and the aesthetic, advocating for access to nature in the city as a fundamental human right. GDU’s portfolio of built work delivers tangible impact and a model for delivering public landscapes as essential infrastructure in a rapidly urbanizing world, home to more than half of the world’s population. — The Oberlander Prize Jury Citation
GDU’s current team includes: Mario Schjetnan (Founding Partner and Director), Ana Schjetnan (Partner), Manuel Peniche (Senior Associate), Marco A. González (Senior Associate), Carlos Rascón (Associate), José Luis Gómez Hidalgo, Héctor González, María de Jesús Tapia, Jimena Camacho, Estefanía Reyes, Brenda Arellano, Fernanda García, Carmen Rodríguez, Ana Campos, Andrea Ramírez, Fernanda Gómez, Ulises Victores, David Aizenman, Rubén Gómez, Gustavo Rojas (External Associate), Rodrigo Hernández (External Associate), Daniel Ramírez (External Associate), Fabián Tron (External Associate), and Ingrid Schjetnan (External Associate).
Mario Schjetnan (far right) and Grupo de Diseño Urbano staff, Mexico City, Mexico, 2025. Image © Barrett Doherty courtesy The Cultural Landscape FoundationOther recent international recognitions in architecture and design reflect a growing emphasis on social engagement and cultural reflection. The Créateurs Design Awards (CDA) announced Xu Tiantian, Founder and Principal Architect of DnA_Design and Architecture, as the recipient of the 2026 edition of Le Prix Charlotte Perriand, which honors architects whose work embodies innovation, social responsibility, and a deep engagement with community and place. Dutch artist Madelon Vriesendorp, co-founder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), was named the recipient of the 2025 Soane Medal, becoming the first UK-based female artist to receive the award since its launch in 2017. Meanwhile, the Lisbon Architecture Triennale selected the Indian firm ReSa Architects as the winner of the fifth edition of the Début Award, honoring their collective and socially oriented approach to spatial practice, which views architecture as a process of rewriting social and bodily relations.