Born in Valladolid, where his grandfather was an architect, but from the age of two, he lived in Cádiz
where he saw the Light.
He is a Professor in the Madrid School of Architecture, ETSAM, where he has been a tenured Professor
for more than 35 years. He has taught at the ETH in Zurich and the EPFL in Lausanne as well as the
University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, the Kansas State University, the CUA University in
Washington, and in 2016, L’Ecole d’Architecture in Tournai, Belgique. More recently, he has been
named 2017 Clarkson Chair in Architecture by the Buffalo University.
He has given lectures all over the world, and has received significant recognition like the Torroja Award
for his Caja Granada or the Award of the UPM University for his Excellence in Teaching. In 2013 he was
awarded the Heinrich Tessenow Gold Medal, the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize of the American
Academy of Arts and Letters, the International Award Architecture in Stone in Verona, and the RIBA
International Fellowship 2014 of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Also in 2014 he was elected
Full Member to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando of Spain. In 2015, he was awarded
the BigMat 2015 in Berlin and the International Prize of Spanish Architecture (PAEI 2015). And won the
1st Prize Ex Aequo to build the new LOUVRE.
His works have been widely recognized. From the Houses Turégano and de Blas, both in Madrid, to
Gaspar House, Asencio House or Guerrero House in Cádiz, Rufo House in Toledo and Moliner House
in Zaragoza. And the Olnick Spanu House in Garrison, New York, the House of the Infinite in Cádiz, and
the Cala House in Madrid. Or the BIT Center in Inca-Mallorca, the public space Between Cathedrals, in
Cádiz, the Caja de Granada Savings Bank and the MA, the Museum of Memory of Andalucía, both in
Granada. And a nursery for Benetton in Venice, or the Offices in Zamora for the Regional Government
of Castilla y León. At present, the Sports Pavilion for the University Francisco de Vitoria, in Madrid, has
been finished.
And more than 30 editions of the books with his texts “La Idea Construida” [The Built Idea], “Pensar con
las manos” [Thinking with your hands], and Principia Architectonica have been published in several
languages. In 2014 he published “Poetica Architectonica”, in 2015 The Built Idea was translated into
English and Chinese and in 2016 his latest texts were published under the title “Varia Architectonica”.
Recently, all his work has been gathered in a book, “Complete Works” by Thames & Hudson, and in
2017, he has published “Teaching to teach”. He believes in Architecture as a Built Idea. And he believes
that the principle components of Architecture are Gravity that constructs Space and Light that constructs
Time.
He has exhibited his work in the Crown Hall by Mies at Chicago’s IIT and at the Palladio Basilica in
Vicenza. And in the Urban Center In New York. And at the Saint Irene Church in Istanbul, and the
Tempietto of San Pietro in Montorio, Rome. In 2009 the prestigious MA Gallery of Toto in Tokyo made
an anthological exhibition of his work that, in 2011 was in the MAXXI Museum in Rome. In 2013 his
work has been exhibited in the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York, and in the Pibamarmi
Foundation in Vicenza. In 2014 at the School of Architecture of Valencia. In 2015, in Cádiz, at the
College of Architects, and at the Spanish Embassy of Iran in Teheran. More recently, in 2016 at the Oris
House of Architecture in Zagreb, and in 2017 at the Buffalo University of Architecture.