Mario Schjetnan Oral History
In 2026 the Pioneers Oral History series will highlight the winner of the 2025 Cornelia Hahn Oberlander International Landscape Architecture Prize, Mario Schjetnan, founder of the Mexico City-based firm Grupo de Diseño Urbano (GDU).
This series is an ever-growing, award-winning collection of thoughtfully produced, videotaped, first-person interviews with significant practitioners. It currently features twenty oral histories, with each examining a designer’s personal and professional history, their overall design philosophy, and how that approach was carried out in their most emblematic projects. The deftly edited video segments include never-before-seen archival footage, new photography, and on-location videography. The final result also includes a complete transcript and collection of approximately twenty illustrated personal recollections written by colleagues, collaborators, and friends.
The oral history with Schjetnan was videotaped at Schjetnan’s office in Mexico City, and at Chapultepec Forest and Park, Xochimilco Ecological Park, and La Mexicana Park, all in Mexico City.
