The Kenneth Frampton Endowed Lecture:
Tatiana Bilbao

The annual Kenneth Frampton Endowed lecture by Tatiana Bilbao
Response by Enrique Walker, Lecturer in Architecture at Columbia GSAPP

Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO is a Mexico City-based architecture studio, founded in 2004. At the core of the studio’s practice is an analysis of the context surrounding projects, which scale from masterplans to affordable housing typologies. A goal of the work is to both contribute to its surroundings while remaining flexible to absorb shifting needs.

Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO pursues architecture through multidisciplinary perspectives. The studio promotes a collective environment with a diverse staff of architects, academics and model makers. Their working method uses hand drawing and iterative models to keep design and development rooted in spatial and not digital exploration. They elevate collaborations between other architects, artists, economists, local governments and more, to enrich the impact and reach of each project.

The studio’s architectural work includes: the Culiacán Botanical Garden; the Pilgrimage Route in Jalisco, an institutional building on the UDEM campus, a research center of the Sea of Cortez, and a social housing prototype displayed at the 2015 Chicago Biennial that costs under $8,000 USD; among other projects. In 2019, Tatiana Bilbao Estudio was the featured architecture firm in the Architect’s Studio series of exhibitions hosted by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. The studio has also exhibited at the Graham Foundation, Chicago Architecture Biennial, Venice Biennale, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, Museo Amparo, Tspace Gallery, and the Centre Pompidou.

Prior to founding her firm, Tatiana Bilbao was an Advisor in the Ministry of Development and Housing of the Government of the Federal District of Mexico City, during this period she was part of the General Development Directorate of the Advisory Council for Urban Development in the City.

Bilbao holds a recurring teaching position at Yale University School of Architecture and has taught at Harvard University GSD, AA Association in London, Columbia University GSAPP, Rice University, the University of Andrés Bello in Chile, and Peter Behrens School of Arts at HS Dusseldorf in Germany. Her work has been published in The New York Times, A + U, Domus, among others. Bilbao has been recognized with the Kunstpreis Berlin in 2012, was named in 2010 as an Emerging Voice by the Architecture League of New York, the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture Prize by the LOCUS Foundation in 2014, as well as the Impact Award 2017 Honorees for ArchitzierA + Awards, Tau Sigma Delta Gold Medal of 2020 and the Marcus Prize Award 2019.

The Kenneth Frampton Endowed Lecture Series is a premier annual lecture given at Columbia GSAPP by a distinguished architect scholar honoring Ware Professor Emeritus Kenneth Frampton for his lifetime of teaching and research. Speakers deliver public lectures addressing some of the key issues central to Professor Frampton’s thinking about the field of architecture. The Kenneth Frampton Lecture was established in 2010 by a generous group of Columbia GSAPP alumni and friends.