Docomomo US is pleased to announce Frida Escobedo, award-winning Mexican architect and founder of her eponymous studio, as the closing keynote speaker of the 19th International Docomomo Conference. Her keynote, Underlying Futures will unearth a plural prospect of the future, engaging with the themes of climate, community and creativity as they relate to modern architecture.
Through the careful examination of her studio projects and alternative case studies, Escobedo will map out the interactions between architecture, exposure and communal agency, in the face of contemporary challenges. The keynote will synthesize these discussions by asking critical questions: How can today’s needs envision the future other? How can the future become a substrate for alternative states of communality?
Docomomo stands at an important crossroads. Founded with a mission to document and preserve the principles and values of the Modern Movement, the organization now operates in a world shaped by new environmental realities and expanded definitions of community and creativity.
The closing keynote takes place Friday, March 20, 2026, at The Getty Center in Los Angeles, with a reception to follow. Attendees can arrive prior to the keynote to enjoy “open hours” and peruse the impressive architecture and collections of the Getty Museum and its grounds.
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Frida Escobedo established her eponymous architecture studio in Mexico City in 2006, expanding her practice with a New York office in 2022. Her trajectory was initially built on the strength of a series of projects in her native country, including the renovation of the Hotel Boca Chica (2008), the El Eco Pavilion (2010), and the expansion of La Tallera Siqueiros in Cuernavaca (2012). The studio garnered international recognition in 2018, when Escobedo received the prestigious appointment to design the annual Serpentine Pavilion in London’s Kensington Gardens, becoming the youngest architect to that date to undertake the project.
In 2022, Frida was appointed design architect for the new Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, becoming the youngest architect and the first woman to design a building for the institution. In 2024, she was selected alongside lead architect Moreau Kusunoki to co-design the renovation of the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Among other recent projects, The Ray Harlem (2025) in New York (with Handel Architects) stands out for its mixed use, incorporating residences and commercial space, and for housing the new National Black Theatre.
Frida is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Architectural League of New York’s Young Architects Forum Award (2009), the BIAU Prize (2014), the Architectural Review Emerging Architecture Award (2016), and the Architectural League Emerging Voices Award (2017).
In 2019, she was honored as an International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Most recently, the Créateurs Design Association & Awards honored her with Le Prix Charlotte Perriand for 2024.
In addition to her practice, Frida has taught at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture (2016), Planning and Preservation (2015), the Architectural Association of London (2016), Harvard’s Graduate School of Design (2016/2019), Rice University (2019), and at Yale University (2022).