Born in Valladolid, where his grandfather was an architect, but from the age of two, he lived in CÁDIZ where he saw the LIGHT. From his father, who was a surgeon, he inherited the spirit of ANALYSIS and from his mother the determination to be an ARCHITECT.

 

He lives in Madrid, where he went to study Architecture. His first professor was Alejandro de la Sota, who imbued in him the ESSENTIAL architecture that he is still trying to erect. He also had Julio Cano Lasso as professor, who very generously invited him to collaborate on some works. As well as Aburto and Cabrero. He wrote his Doctoral Thesis with Javier Carvajal and entered as a PROFESSOR, by the hand of Sáenz de Oíza, in the Madrid School of Architecture, the ETSAM.

 

He has taught at the ETH in Zurich and the EPFL in Lausanne as well as the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. And in Dublin and Naples, and in Virginia and Copenhagen. And at the BAUHAUS in Weimar, at Kansas State University and at the CUA University in Washington. And he spent two years as a research fellow at COLUMBIA University in

New York, in 2003 and 2011. He has given many lectures all over the world, and has received many awards like the TORROJA for his Caja Granada building or the Buenos Aires Biennial 2009 Awards to his Nursery for Benetton in Venice and his MA Museum in Granada. In 2010 the public space Between Cathedrals was finalist in the FAD Awards. In 2011 was appointed Honorary Member of the Official College of Architects of Cádiz. In 2012 his Offices in Zamora for the Consejo Consultivo de Castilla y León was nominated in the Mies van der Rohe Awards, and he received the Award of the UPM University for his Excellence in Teaching. And in 2013 he has been awarded the HEINRICH TESSENOW GOLD MEDAL, the ARNOLD W. 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 has been elected Full Member to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando of Spain.