4. Gabriela Carrillo

Mexican architect Gabriela Carrillo is passionate about her business. ‘I have a six-year-old boy, and he and the country where I live are my guidelines in my work,’ she says. ‘I am a determined feminist, completely against the traditional practices that prevail in our patriarchal system. I believe my work can do something against that in a constructive way. I am always thinking of the future, that I might not see, but my kid will.’ After working with Mauricio Rocha in Mexico City for 16 years, Carrillo set up her own studio in 2017, and in 2019, co-founded C733, a platform to focus specifically on public projects. Museums, hotels, and residential and community work are part of her ever-expanding portfolio, and she has won several awards in her field. Carrillo feels especially strongly about projects that are ‘meaningful’. She mentions, as an example, working on a library for blind and visually-impaired people.

‘It forced me to be aware of the strength of the senses,’ she says. Matamoros Market (left), a public space on the country’s northern borders, plays with notions of freedom and spatial flexibility, and works with the region’s climatic conditions. ‘The most powerful tools of architecture are priceless,’ she says. As for architecture’s biggest challenge? ‘To reinvent its meanings,’ she concludes. gabrielacarrillo.mx