Mexican architect Mario Schjetnan and his firm Grupo de Diseño Urbano (GDU) have been awarded the prestigious 2025 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize, making them the first Latin Americans to receive this distinguished honor. The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) announced the selection, recognizing Schjetnan's decades-long commitment to environmental awareness, cultural memory, and improving quality of life through landscape architecture.
The biennial Oberlander Prize was established in 2014 to increase visibility, understanding, appreciation, and dialogue around landscape architecture. The most recent laureate was landscape architect Kongjian Yu, the pioneer of the "Sponge City" concept. This international recognition places Schjetnan among an elite group of practitioners who are considered "exceptionally talented, creative, courageous, and visionary" with significant bodies of built work that exemplify the art of landscape architecture.
Mario Schjetnan earned his architecture degree from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 1968 and completed his Master of Landscape Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley in 1970. In 1977, he established GDU with architect José Luis Pérez, joined by their respective spouses, Irma Schjetnan and Letty Pérez. Since its founding, the firm has worked extensively across Mexico, Latin America, the Middle East, China, and the United States, developing projects in landscape architecture, urbanism, and architecture.
According to TCLF, Schjetnan belongs to a generation of landscape architects, architects, and urbanists who became acutely aware of the environmental impacts of urban development and their consequences for life, the planet, and its inhabitants. He has been recognized for advancing urban design grounded in environmental awareness, cultural memory, and quality of life, promoting what he describes as "a new ethical and aesthetic relationship with the environment."
Defining GDU's philosophy, Schjetnan 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 objectives, 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."
Schjetnan's work draws inspiration from a diverse 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 consistently integrate cultural and ecological values into contemporary urban environments.
Before founding GDU, Schjetnan served as the first head of urban and housing design at INFONAVIT from 1972 to 1977, where he oversaw projects in 110 cities across Mexico, producing approximately 100,000 housing units, including 5,000 in Mexico City. This early experience in large-scale urban planning would later inform his approach to landscape architecture and urban design.
GDU's impressive portfolio includes landmark works such as Chapultepec Park, Xochimilco Ecological Park, and Copalita Eco-Archaeological Park. The firm has also created large urban parks on reclaimed industrial sites, including La Mexicana Park and Bicentennial Park in Mexico City. Nearly half of the firm's work focuses on parks, alongside residential developments, post-industrial site rehabilitations, museums, and other diverse projects.
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. 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 Oberlander Prize Jury Citation praised GDU as "a strong voice for social engagement and environmental justice in tandem with the art of landscape architecture." The jury noted that "their work bridges the ethical and the aesthetic, advocating for access to nature in the city as a fundamental human right." They emphasized that "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."
GDU's current team reflects the collaborative nature of the practice, including Mario Schjetnan as Founding Partner and Director, Ana Schjetnan as Partner, Manuel Peniche and Marco A. González as Senior Associates, Carlos Rascón as Associate, and numerous other professionals including José Luis Gómez Hidalgo, Héctor González, María de Jesús Tapia, Jimena Camacho, and many others who contribute to the firm's diverse project portfolio.
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. This recognition comes at a crucial time when rapidly developing megacities and cultural homogenization present significant challenges to sustainable urban development and cultural preservation.
This award reflects a growing emphasis in international architecture and design recognition on social engagement and cultural reflection. Recent similar honors include Xu Tiantian receiving the 2026 Le Prix Charlotte Perriand from the Créateurs Design Awards, Dutch artist Madelon Vriesendorp being named the 2025 Soane Medal recipient, and Indian firm ReSa Architects winning the Lisbon Architecture Triennale's Début Award for their socially oriented approach to spatial practice.
