2024 Charlotte Perriand award winner: architect Frida Escobedo

Frida Escobedo scoops the 2024 Charlotte Perriand award, which honours ‘trailblazers in architecture and design’

Frida Escobedo sitting in a wooden chair in front of her desk.the architect won the 2024 Charlotte Perriand award
Architect Frida Escobedo
(Image credit: Caroline Tompkins)

Mexican architect Frida Escobedo has scooped the 2024 Charlotte Perriand award. The honour, handed out annually by the Créateurs Design Awards in memory of the iconic French architect and designer, highlights Escobedo's 'daring concepts, visionary approach, and profound impact on the field'. 

'[Escobedo's] work exemplifies the qualities that this award seeks to recognise –boldness, innovation, and a commitment to shaping the future of design,' said co-founder of the Créateurs Design Association, Yuri Xavier. 

portrait of frida escobedo wearing white loose suit

Frida Escobedo, whom we interviewed in 2021, when she championed five creative leaders of the future

(Image credit: Karla Lisker)

2024 Charlotte Perriand award: in Frida Escobedo's words

'In a field dominated by men, Charlotte Perriand created her own path: one that was fearlessly innovative yet deeply rooted in the belief that all beings have the right to beauty, comfort, and functionality. She shaped the world through her vast production of work while building a constellation of friends and colleagues, teaching us that collaboration is one of the most fundamental practices in the architectural discipline. Her multifaceted body of work defies a single classification, yet her experimentation seems to follow certain threads that anchor her curiosity to her surroundings (the places she lived in, the culture and history) and her personal history,' said Escobedo.

'To find myself acknowledged by this remarkable jury is an honour that resonates deeply within me. It serves as a testament to the enduring legacy of Charlotte Perriand, a legacy I am humbled and overjoyed to perpetuate.'

Frida Escobedo photography of Serpentine Pavilion 2018 - a latticed structure with an internal courtyard

Serpentine Pavilion 2018, by Escobedo

(Image credit: Iwan Baan. Image courtesy of Frida Escobedo, Taller de Arquitectura)

The Charlotte Perriand award was established two years ago, citing a mission to ‘honour trailblazers in architecture and design'. 

The 2022 Charlotte Perriand Award winner was American architect Jeanne Gang, the Chicago-based architect recognised for her inspirational portfolio of work – highlights of which include the ongoing American Museum of Natural History's Richard Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation – and her standout project to date, the Aqua Tower, which is also ‘the tallest building in the world to be designed by a woman, at the time of its completion'. 

The ’Lina Bo Bardi: Habitat’ exhibition at Museo Jumex. A gallery with a wooden leather chair on a square platform in the center of the room in front of a wooden wall partition with photos and paintings on it.

The ’Lina Bo Bardi: Habitat’ exhibition, designed by Escobedo, at Museo Jumex

(Image credit: Ramiro Chaves)

The award is part of the larger family of the Créateurs Design Awards, spanning architecture, interiors, and exhibition design. Nominations for all those categories are currently open to submissions, and the winners will be announced in a dedicated ceremony in Paris in early 2024 – the same event that will see Escobedo officially pick up her gong.

createursdesignawards.com 

fridaescobedo.com 

Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture & Environment Director at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018), Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020) and House London (2022).