ARQ. MARIO SCHJETNAN

Mario Schjetnan is one of the most important and recognized landscape architects in the national and international scene.

In 2015, he received the Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe Award, considered as the highest recognition of this profession. Besides his outstanding professional trajectory, he has dedicated himself to spread the discipline through teaching, giving conferences and publishing his work in many books and magazines.

Harvard Students, 1994.
Photography: Archivo GDU

Luis Barragán
& Mario Schjetnan, 1970. Photography: Archivo GDU

What part does landscape architecture playS in our contemporary societies? 

Landscape Architecture is the art and the technique of creating or transforming a landscape, which can be conceived as the interaction of four different visions: the ecological or natural, the urban, the technical, and the aesthetic. 

The current vanguard has placed landscape architecture as a vital element for the recovery and design of our cities, due to its environmental and regeneration principles. On one side, we have the environmental crisis that manifests through the savage insensitivity of the relation between city and nature. On the other hand, we have the dehumanization and chaos of infrastructures, viaducts, roads, buildings and urban areas that are unrelated.

The interdisciplinary calling of landscape architecture has the ability to restore the city and create high-quality urban environments. It is capable of improving and transforming many lives.

GDU Plaza Bugambilias
Photography: Francisco Gómez Sosa

“Our goal is to achieve creative and contemporary solutions for design problems, either they are new or old. These solutions must be efficient, aesthetic and feasible; they have to be created taking into account the preservation and improvement of the environment.”

WHAT IS YOUR SOURCE OF INSPIRATION FOR DESIGN?

The main inspiration for park design is the place itself; the topographical, climatic, geologic and hydraulic characteristics, also the type of preexistent vegetation. In second term, the scale of the public space or park: whether is a small boardwalk, an urban or metropolitan park or a big natural park; the creative part is to imagine the possibilities of the site, or how to include and compose spaces for diverse use: forest, recreational, aquatic, adventure, spaces for moving or waiting, observation or gathering areas.

San Luis Bicentennial Park.
Photography: Francisco Gómez Sosa