Fernando Romero is one of today’s most relevant international architects and part of a new vanguard that is upending traditional approaches to design, reflected in important commissions like Museo Soumaya, the world’s most visited private museum and Mexico’s most Instagrammed building, and Mexico City’s $9 billion New International Airport, a collaboration with Lord Norman Foster. Converging organic and systematic approaches, Fernando Romero’s projects address a wide range of public and private initiatives from community education to urban development. FR-EE’s projects translate contemporary moments of society and culture into built form, achieving ground-breaking results through extensive technological advancements, through research, and the implementation of green infrastructure.

The concept of translation embodies his understanding of architecture, using design to transform context, conditions and moments into buildings and places with structured identities. Ultimately, the goal of each project is to experience and render periods of societal, political and economic transformation into three-dimensional form.

A graduate of Mexico’s Universidad Iberoamericana, Romero worked in Paris under Jean Nouvel and in Rotterdam under Rem Koolhaas. In 1999, he served as the Project Leader responsible for the winning entry for the iconic Casa da Música in Porto, Portugal, which the New York Times described as “one of the most important concert halls built in the last 100 years”.

Upon his return to Mexico in 2000, he founded FR-EE / Fernando Romero EnterprisE, setting about to remake and reimagine Mexico City’s architectural fabric and opening a new chapter in Mexico’s extraordinary legacy of architecture and design. In the course of a decade and half, he has won dozens of commissions throughout Mexico and Latin America, as well as the Middle East and Asia. In 2011 he opened FR-EE’s New York office, and has since secured important commissions in New York, Miami, and Austin, Texas, and is branching out into product and industrial design.

The practice has several projects under construction, including Mexico City’s New International Airport (with Foster + Partners), the largest infrastructure project in Mexico’s history, and the largest airport in the world. Its main terminal will span over 100 metres, three times that of a conventional airport—a monumental scale inspired by Mexican architecture and symbolism. Designed to be the world’s most sustainable airport, it will use less energy than a typical city block and is the first to be designed to LEED Platinum specifications.

An enthusiastic proponent of design education and cultural endeavors, Fernando Romero and FR-EE support a wide range of educational and cultural activities. Taking an active role in shaping and promoting long-term growth and development in México while preserving cultural heritage and awareness of the role of architecture, he founded Regeneration, a project restoring selected pieces of modernist Mexican architecture, and Archivo Diseño y Arquitectura, the capital’s designated space for the collection and exhibition of the country’s design.

Recognized as one of the leading architects of his generation, Romero was named a Global Leader of Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum in 2002, one of the 50 Most Influential Designers by Fast Company in 2012 and became an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) in 2013 for his exceptional work and significant contributions to architecture and society.

ABOUT FR-EE

FR-EE is a global architecture and design practice operating at the intersection of culture, development and technology with offices in New York and Mexico City. Since 2000, FR-EE has built more than 1.2 million m. / 13 million ft., and has 1.4 million m. / 15 million ft. in development. The projects address a wide range of public and private initiatives from community education to urban development.

FR-EE’s projects translate contemporary moments of society, context and culture into built form, achieving groundbreaking results through extensive technological advancements, research and the implementation of green infrastructures.

The concept of translation embodies FR-EE’s mission and philosophy, with the ultimate goal of rendering periods of societal, political and economic transformation into three-dimensional form.

Collaboration is central to FR-EE’s design investigation, working closely with clients, policy makers, curators, educators, non-profit entities, developers, engineers, contractors, artists and anthropologists, to ultimately reach comprehensive and innovative solutions.

Beyond practicing design, FR-EE orchestrates initiatives aimed at elevating standards of living and education, particularly in Latin America, through research, sports and curation.