[1] She graduated in 1964 with a degree in architecture from the Delft University of Technology,[2] but found it difficult to find work as a female architect in the Netherlands.

Initially employed in Mexico City, she found bias against working with a woman there too and requested that she be transferred to more remote areas.

She built 90 concrete market stalls[4] to create the Plaza de los Ponchos and house the handicrafts of indigenous merchants.

[6] In 1976, Zwollo returned to Oaxaca and worked on a collaborative project to restore the Santa Catalina Convent with architect Martín Ruíz Camino.

[1] The conserved sixteenth-century, ex-convent was converted into a five-star hotel called El Presidente,[7] winning Zwollo an additional Prix d'Excellence Award, from France.

[8] In 1993, Zwollo and Ruíz published a book about their projects first in Spanish and then under the English title, The Lost Paradise: Architecture and Ecology in the Oaxaca Valley (ISBN 978-9-080-14891-8).