Mexican landscape architect Mario Schjetnan's Grupo de Diseño wins 2025 Oberlander Prize

The 2025 Oberlander Prize has just been announced, and the covered accolade this year goes to Mexican landscape architect Mario Schjetnan and his studio, Grupo de Diseño. The practice, centred around the founder's motto, 'We have a human right to open space,' was founded by Schjetnan in 1977 and has been a leading voice in the landscape industry with projects in its own country and beyond ever since.

The biennial recognition - officially the Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize - includes a $100,000 award and two years of public engagement activities for each winner. The prize was founded to promote the role of landscape work across the globe, as well as honour the legacy of the grande dame of the industry, Cornelia Hahn Oberlander. Set up in 2014, the award celebrated the work of Julie Bargmann in 2021, and the late Kongjian Yu in 2023.

Explore the work of the 2025 Oberlander Prize winner

Schjetnan's prolific studio is powered by its deep knowledge in the field, spearheaded by the founder, who studied his subject with passion and detail - he has been awarded several grants and industry recognitions over his career so far, including not one, but two honourary PhDs - from Universidad Autónoma de Nuevo Léon and the Universidad Autónoma de Baja California.

Mixing Mexican modernist architecture influences with the country's contemporary needs as well as wider culture, from art to pre-Hispanic myths, Schjetnan has been a vocal advocate for Mexico’s 'mosaic of cultures' and diversity. He has also served as the first head of urban and housing design (1972-77) at INFONAVIT, the government initiative providing workers’ housing.

GDU was founded by Schjetnan, together with architect José Luiz Pérez as his principal partner and their respective wives, Irma Schjetnan and Letty Pérez. Their portfolio includes, from the 684-acre Xochimilco Ecological Park and La Mexicana Park in the Santa Fe District, both in Mexico, to projects in the US, such as Union Point Park in Oakland, CA (the practice's first in the US) and San Pedro Creek Culture Park in San Antonio, TX.

When asked about the studio's core, he explains: 'I think, first of all, [it is] the concept of culture. The concept that the landscape is really about culture,' adding, 'if you want to develop a site or a new area, you have to start with a park [...] There is a human right to open space.'

The 2025 Oberlander Prize jury citation states: '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,' adding: 'GDU’s portfolio of built work delivers tangible impact and a model for delivering public landscapes as essential infrastructure in a rapidly urbanising world—home to more than half of the world’s population.'

Mario Schjetnan, in his own words

Charles A. Birnbaum, The Cultural Landscape Foundation's president and CEO, said on the announcement: 'For more than 50 years, Mario Schjetnan’s unwavering commitment to the idea of a human right to have access to open space and the necessity for incorporating cultural values in his work have served as foundational requirements in shaping and managing an equitable built environment for all. For many decades, Schjetnan he has held numerous academic appointments, and he and GDU have created a diverse and innovative body of projects, and advanced theories and initiated actions for creating a more just public realm.'