Bottega Veneta honors architect Junya Ishigami at a Mexico City lunch celebrating the inaugural Barragán Prize
Bottega Veneta co-hosted a celebratory lunch in Mexico City on October 9 to honor Japanese architect Junya Ishigami, the inaugural recipient of the Barragán Prize, a new annual international award recognizing individuals who expand the possibilities of architecture. Organized in partnership with La Cuadra, the event brought together figures from the architecture and art worlds to mark the award’s launch at a site designed by Mexican architect Luis Barragán.
Named after Barragán, the only Mexican architect to receive the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the award recognizes individuals whose work challenges conventions and influences how people inhabit the world. The inaugural ceremony took place at La Cuadra, a former private residence and stables realized by Barragán in the late 1960s and regarded as one of the defining works of 20th-century Mexican architecture.
Bottega Veneta Creative Director Louise Trotter co-hosted the lunch with Fernando Romero. Guests included artist Marina Abramović, artist Pedro Reyes, architect Benedetta Tagliabue, architect Jürgen Mayer H., architect and curator Raymund Ryan, and Japan’s Ambassador Extraordinary to Mexico, Kozo Honsei. The gathering connected the award’s architectural focus with Bottega Veneta’s longstanding engagement with art and design.
Ishigami founded his Tokyo-based practice, junya.ishigami+associates, in 2004 after completing a master’s program in architecture at Tokyo University of the Arts and working at Kazuyo Sejima & Associates. His projects include the Kanagawa Institute of Technology KAIT Workshop and KAIT Plaza, the Park Groot Vijversburg Visitor Center, MIZUNIWA, the Serpentine Pavilion 2019, House & Restaurant, and the Zaishui Art Museum. His work explores the relationship between architecture, nature, landscape and human experience.
His honors include the Golden Lion for Best Project at the 2010 Venice Architecture Biennale, the OBEL Award in 2019, the Frederick Kiesler Prize for Architecture and the Arts in 2024, and the Architectural Institute of Japan Prize in 2024. He was elected an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 2025 and received the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize in 2026.
The Barragán Prize establishes a new platform for recognizing architectural work that challenges established approaches to the discipline. For Bottega Veneta, its involvement extends the house’s cultural engagement beyond fashion into architecture and the wider creative fields.
