Architecture and urban planning in Latin America face deeply rooted social, environmental, and economic challenges shaped by historical inequalities, rapid population growth, and unplanned urbanization. Addressing these issues requires innovative solutions that balance housing needs, ecological preservation, and respect for local identities. Amid this complex landscape, several visionary female architects are making a difference with creative and impactful approaches.
Each year, TIME publishes TIME100 Next, a list, inspired by its flagship TIME100, seeking to recognize 100 people from all industries around the world whose careers are on the rise. As a result, the 2022 TIME100 Next list features high-profile musicians and medical professionals, government officials, movement leaders and whistleblowers along with top CEOs, all selected by TIME journalists. However, in this year's list it is possible to recognize the only professional that represents the guild: the Mexican architect Frida Escobedo.
Earlier this year, the jury of the Pritzker Prize chose the Indian architect Balkrishna Doshi, also known as B.V. Doshi, or Doshi, as the winner of the 2018 Pritzker Prize. In recent weeks a lot of information has come to light about the winning architect's practice who, as you probably already know, was an apprentice and collaborator of Le Corbusier and Louis Kahn. Being the first Indian architect to receive Architecture's most prestigious award, Doshi has had an active career of more than 70 years, with a poetic architectural style that is based on oriental cultural influences, creating a production that "covers all socioeconomic classes, in a wide spectrum of typologies, since the 1950s," according to the jury's record.
But, can you imagine what it's like to work with Doshi in his firm? We talked with four alumni from the School of Architecture, Art and Design from Tecnológico de Monterrey, who some years ago had the opportunity to travel to India to work directly with Doshi through a professional internship program promoted by the same university. Arturo Acosta, Jeimi Cuendulain, Airam Moreno and Giovanni Llamas tell us about their experience working in the firm, as well as anecdotes that marked them both professionally and personally that helped them see and experience architecture beyond the obvious. Here are their testimonies below:
