Architect Frida Escobedo | Winner of Le Prix Charlotte Perriand 2024

Born, raised and educated in Mexico City, Frida Escobedo and her architectural studio has achieved global reach with structures dotting metropolises the world over from London to Lisbon, California to Geneva, with plenty across her home country of Mexico too.

Escobedo came to architecture relatively late, having not felt the ‘call’ she opted for architecture as a safe path into a usable skill, but it was not until she started at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City that she truly fell in love, apparently in the very first week of term. After seven years, her talent flourished, and Escobedo went on to complete a master's degree in public art at Harvard's Graduate School of Design.

Preferring to work as an independent solo operator, Frida Escobedo started her own architectural studio in 2006 in her hometown of Mexico City. Her creative approach stemmed from a desire to keep simplicity at the forefront of design, the challenge of simple forms, simple structures and simple materials created its own style of complexity and respect for function.

A few of her earlier projects show the range of her precocious talent from the 1950s hotel retro-charm of regeneration project, Boca Chica Hotel in Acapulco to the El Eco Pavilion, Mexico City where concrete blocks form a fluid pattern, meeting lemon-yellow sheets of smooth concrete walls, inviting a conversation about the poetic flexibility of this so-called rigid material. In California, Escobedo designed the University of Stanford’s business school, cladding it in rust-red steel that called out to be touched in a child-like way, to explore its sound, feel and texture. Lisbon benefited from Escobedo’s innovative design with a sloping and interactive timber stage, created for the Lisbon Triennial that elevated higher with each person to step on it.

In 2018, a career-defining project occurred – the Serpentine Gallery in London’s Hyde Park, a prestigious temporary project awarded to one architect per year, with Escobedo being the youngest architect to be selected for the honour, joining the ranks of acclaimed architects to have designed the outdoor space such as Zaha Hadid, Peter Zumthor, and Frank Gehry. Escobedo’s design stayed true to her ethics and her concrete tiles woven together portrayed her simplistic aesthetics, with powerful effect. 

After this a slew of projects came Escobedo’s way and she favoured hometown assignmentslike joining 32 other architects to contribute to an experimental community housing project in Hidalgo, a district just north of Mexico City. Recently Escobedo designed a gorgeous eco-friendly resort by the sea - wooden, stilted cabins cradled in the jungly region of the Yucatan Peninsula. 

Escobedo’s name is now firmly cemented into international roster of architectural acclaim, confirmed by the announcement that she will take over from David Chipperfield Architects to design the new Oscar L Tang and HM Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and we await her plans with anticipation. 

Meanwhile, Frida Escobedo gathers more recognition, as she is named winner of the Le Prix Charlotte Perriand 2024, an award for architectural trailblazers, as French modernist designer Charlotte Perriand was, although often overshadowed by her male counterparts. This is an accolade that honours Frida Escobedo’s bold design and commitment to shaping the future.