Fernando Romero (architect)

Fernando Romero Havaux (born 1971)^[1] is a Mexican architect and philanthropist. He is the founder of FR-EE Fernando Romero^[2]. In 2025, Fernando established Fundacion Fernando Romero and under its patronage is transforming Barragan's masterpiece – La Cuadra – into a new cultural venue for Mexico City.^[3] He is also the co-founder of Archivo Diseño y Arquitectura.

Family

Romero is the great-grandson of Alejandro Romero Lesbros, who was a pioneer in the development of several boroughs and recreation districts in Mexico City from the 1920s to the 1940s. His grandfather Raúl Romero Erazo and father Raúl Romero Zenizo continued the family business. He studied architecture at Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City from 1991 until 1995, serving as a president of the alumni society.^[4]

Career

In 1995, following graduation, Romero joined the office of Rem Koolhaas, Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), in Rotterdam, Netherlands.^[5] In 1999, Romero served as the project leader who won the entry for Casa da Música in Porto, Portugal.^[4] After its inauguration in 2005, The New York Times described the building as "one of the most important concert halls built in the last 100 years".^[6]

Fernando Romero – Practice

After leaving OMA, Romero founded his own studio in Mexico City in 2000. Its work comprises a variety of scales, programs and morphologies^[7] located all over the world.^[8]

Romero designed the Soumaya Museum,^[9] the Mexico City International Airport (with Norman Foster)^[10] and El Salvador's Bitcoin City along with its Airport of the Pacific.^[11] In Spring 2025, his studio broke ground on a new $84 million hospital in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico for CHRISTUS HEALTH.^[12]

• BitCoin City, President Bukele, EL SALVADOR The Bitcoin City Of Salvador. Presented by President Bukele of El Salvador, designed by Architect Fernando Romero.Bitcoin city will be developed in the East of the country. Together with a new airport and a sea port, it will become the most ambitious regional development undertaken by El Salvador. This new city will mark the new moment of our civilisation. It will be a new urban planning with an environmental conscience due to Bitcoin City generating its own energy from the volcano located at the perimeter. This will show a new humanitarian city plan. The city will become a catalyst for investment by local and foreign businesses, who will become principal players in this new cycle of contemporary living.
• New Terminal Airport, President Bukele, El Salvador^[13]Nayib Bukele with a render of the Airport of the Pacific President Nayib Bukele presided over the laying of the cornerstone of the Pacific Airport in the eastern part of the country in early 2025.^[14] Designed by Fernando Romero to serve as the initial gateway to Bitcoin City. With a capacity to handle 1 million passengers annually, the terminal combines efficient design with environmental responsibility. The terminal's defining architectural element is its geometric roof structure, composed of quadrangular pyramids that serve both practical and sustainable purposes.
• Soumaya Museum Home to Carlos Slim's remarkable collection of nearly 70,000 works, the Museo Soumaya in Mexico City's Plaza Carso is a cultural treasure showcasing art from the 15th century to the modern era, including one of the world's largest collections of Rodin sculptures. The museum's striking architectural form—an iconic, rotated rhomboid clad in over 16,000 hexagonal mirrored-steel tiles—reflects both its artistic contents and the dynamic environment of the city. Upon its opening the WSJ described it as "Billowing into the Mexico City skyline, Carlos Slim's Museo Soumaya is a civic gift and unrivaled masterworks trophy case.^[15]
• Christus Health $84M Hospital in Los Cabos ^[16] In April 2025, CHRISTUS HEALTH, an international not-for-profit health system, broke ground on a new, state-of-the-art hospital in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico designed by Fernando Romero. The project will incorporate cultural elements, local materials and textures, as well as artistic installations that reflect the identity of Baja California Sur. Energy efficiency will be a priority through high-performance HVAC and lighting systems, along with the use of sustainable and eco-friendly materials. A double-skin facade wraps around the facility, with aluminum louvers that mitigate heat gain, preserve outward views, and withstand the corrosive coastal climate. Biophilic design principles are also applied throughout, including integrated greenery and framed views to reduce the clinical atmosphere often associated with healthcare spaces.
• New Mexico City international Airport The proposed New Mexico City Airport was designed in collaboration between fr·ee and Foster + Partners. This project was cancelled by the administration of Andrés Manuel López Obrador. It would have had an area of 743,000 square meters. Arup would have been the engineer on the project and performed original masterplan. The terminal would have used very little power, and would have been the most sustainable airport in the world. It would have had short spaces throughout the halls; therefore, no internal trains or subway tunnels would be used. It would have had six lanes, and would have been able to mobilize up to 120 million passengers per year. It is estimated that the project would have required an investment of about 9,150 million dollars and is considered to be the most important work of the administration of the president Enrique Peña Nieto.^[17]

• G-20 Convention Center The Convention Center, located in Los Cabos, Mexico, was designed by fr·ee to host the 2012 G-20 Los Cabos summit. It has a capacity of 6,500 people and an area of 5,400 square meters. It is set for conferences, exhibitions, festivals and other events and was built in less than seven months. One of the features is the green wall found in its structure, which is the largest in the world with an area of 2,700 square meters.^[18]
• Eco Museum, Mexico City (2006–2007), described by Fernanda Canales in her book "Mexican architecture: 1900–2010" as a project that allows an association between the architecture with the general culture.
• General Offices Inbursa, Mexico City (2001–2003).^[19]
• Cervantes Tower: residential complex, Mexico City (2009–2010)
• Teahouse, Jinhua, China (2004–2006), considered a project that placed Mexican architecture within the architectural platform that seemed unattainable to Mexico a few years ago.^[20] The masterplan was designed by Herzog & de Meuron, and the initiative goes back to Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.
• Plaza Carso, Mexico City (2005–2017)^[21]

Philanthropy

In February 2025, Romero founded Fundacion Fernando Romero^[22] which operates through the disciplines of art, architecture, and spatial research, all with the ambition of making a positive impact on people's lives. The work of the Fundación is organized under two umbrella initiatives —— Arts & Culture and a Research Institute.

La Cuadra

During Mexico City Art Week 2025, Romero announced that his foundation would transform La Cuadra ^[23]— Luis Barragán's 1968 equestrian complex — into a new public cultural destination. The plan includes new pavilions and a rotating program of temporary interventions. "Through a range of programming, we aim to catalyze the power of architecture for the visiting public and celebrate the enduring cultural influence of Luis Barragán," Romero said.^[24]

Marina Abramović at La Cuadra

As an early preview of the programming his foundation would organize at La Cuadra, Marina Abramović^[25] presented a performance of her manifesto during Mexico City Art Week 2025, marking the site's first public artist intervention.^[26]

Felix Gonzalez-Torres at La Cuadra

Timed to Mexico City Art Week 2026, La Cuadra presented a focused solo exhibition of works by Cuban-American artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres, installed in what organizers described as a "poetic friction" with Barragán's architecture. Running through April 5, 2026, the exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation, with loans from the Guggenheim Museum, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the Art Institute of Chicago, marking the artist's first solo presentation in Mexico City since 2010.^[27]

Barragán en Barragán at La Cuadra

Also opening during Art Week 2026, La Cuadra inaugurated *Barragán en Barragán*, curated by architect Jorge Covarrubias and described as the first exhibition produced by Mexicans dedicated to Luis Barragán, presented inside one of his own buildings. The show traces more than ten of Barragán's projects — including Casa Gálvez, the Casa-Estudio Barragán, the Convent of the Capuchinas, and La Cuadra itself — through scale models and archival photography by Yukio Futagawa, René Burri, and Armando Salas Portugal. "The singularity is to celebrate Luis Barragán inside one of Barragán's own masterpieces. This exhibition centers on the evolution of his work, from modern great buildings to his own particular language," Romero said.^[28]

Archivo Diseño y Arquitectura

Romero is also the co-founder of Archivo Diseño y Arquitectura, a initiative centered on a private collection and experimental exhibition program for industrial design objects.

Lectures and public speaking

Romero has lectured extensively, most recently at the AIA Latin America: FAST FORWARD 2025 conference.^[29] He also served as a visiting professor at Columbia University in New York City. He is a member of the American Institute of Architects and CAMSAM (Mexican Chamber of Architects).

Awards and Honors

Romero has been awarded with numerous international and national distinctions, such as:^[30]

2023: Premio Firenze Entremuros – Finalist, Public Architecture Building (National Pavilion of Biodiversity); Built Design Awards – Winner, Architectural Design – Cultural (National Pavilion of Biodiversity); Rethinking the Future Awards – First Award (New Pacific Airport Terminal β).

2022: LOOP Design Awards – Category Winner, Landscape | Urban Design (Bitcoin City); Urban Design and Architecture Design Awards – Urban Design Concept (Bitcoin City).

2021: Global Future Design Awards – Office Interior Design Built (Kering Offices); Luxury Lifestyle Awards – Best Luxury Commercial Architecture (Kering Offices); The Architecture Community – World Design Awards – Corporate Interior Built (Kering Offices); Rethinking the Future Awards – First Award (New International Airport for Mexico City); The International Architecture Award – Airports and Transportation Centres (New International Airport for Mexico City).

2020: CREADWARD Public Building – Merit Award (Plaza Carso).

2017: AI Global Architecture Awards – Best Global Architecture & Industrial Design Firm – North America; Fast Company World Changing Ideas Award – Urban Design (Border City); Jaguar Internacional de las Artes.

2015: American Institute of Architects (AIA) – Honorary Fellowship (Fernando Romero); Architizer A+ Awards – A+ Award (Soumaya Museum).

2014: Society of American Registered Architects – New York Council – Design Award for Merit (Soumaya Museum).

2013: Azure Magazine – People's Choice Award (Soumaya Museum).

2012: Spark Award (Soumaya Museum); IMEI Award (Plaza Carso); American Property Award (Soumaya Museum); Fast Company – 50 Most Influential Designers (Fernando Romero).

2011: Travel + Leisure – Best New Museum (Soumaya Museum); Reforma – Best of the Best 2011 (Soumaya Museum); Wallpaper* – 150 Movers, Shakers and Makers (Fernando Romero); World Architecture Festival – Finalist (Soumaya Museum and Soccer Villa).

2010: Estrella Sebastina Award – Architect of the Year (Fernando Romero); Caras Magazine – Mexico's Bicentenary Faces (Fernando Romero).

2009: Mexican Society of Architects – Young Architects Award (Fernando Romero).

2006: Red Dot Award – Best of the Best (Bridging Teahouse); Pamphlet Architecture Prize (Translation); Metropolis Next Generation Awards – Semifinalist (Hyperborder).

2005: International Bauhaus Award (Villa S); Society of American Registered Architects Prize (House on the Beach); Dedalo Minosse – Honorable Mention (Inbursa Headquarters).

2004: The Architectural League of New York – Young Architects Forum Award (Fernando Romero); Vanceva® Design Awards – Semifinalist / U.S. Winner (Inbursa Headquarters).

2003: FX International Interior Design Award (House on the Beach).

2002: World Economic Forum – Global Leader of Tomorrow (Fernando Romero).

Books

Books by Romero:^[31]

• Author of Bitcoinary: The First Illustrated Bitcoin Dictionary
• Fernando Romero Enterprise Architecture, Rizzoli (New York, 2020)^[32]
• FR-EE, Mapas (Mexico City, 2013)^[31]
• You Are The Context (New York, 2012)
• Simplexity, Hatje Cantz (Germany, 2010)
• Hyperborder, Princeton Architectural Press (New York, 2007): A research into one of the most active borders in the world: Mexico-USA
• The Air Is Blue (Mexico City, 2007): In homage to Luis Barragán, an exposition curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Pedro Reyes (Artist), with 30 contemporary artists
• Translation, ACTAR Editorial (Barcelona, 2005)
• ZMVM (Mexico City, 2000): An analysis of Mexico City's urban transformation