Fernando Menis


Fernando Martín Menis, better known as Fernando Menis, is a Spanish Architect who graduated from the Barcelona Institute of Architecture, and also serves as the Chairman of the Laboratory for Innovation in Architecture, Design and Advanced Tourism of Tenerife. He is also a professor at the European University of the Canary Islands and, occasionally, serves as a guest speaker at International Congresses of Architecture and Universities.
In 2004, Fernando Menis created Menis Architects; an architectural studio based in both Tenerife and Madrid, as well as Valencia. Menis' designs are characterized by being sustainable and adaptable; representing low cost projects combining the natural elements of the urban landscape with architecture. Its major completed projects include the Presidency of the Government of the Canary Islands in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, a swimming pool in the Spree River in Berlin, Magma Art & Congress, the Insular Athletics Stadium and the Multifunctional Concert Hall "Jordanki" in Torun.
In 2007, Fernando Menis created Fernando Menis S.L.P.U. to keep working around the world.
Current projects include the Swiss Hotel Complex Bürchen Mystik and the Holy Redeemer Church in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, the latter being part of the MoMa permanent collection in New York City.

Early life and education

Perhaps to understand the professional moment Menis lives in, we have to go back to his childhood where he "used to help father when making own toys with recycled materials", something that later developed in his high school years, as he used to spend hours dreaming of shapes in soft materials, such as wax candles.
Menis often describes this as his inspiration to study architecture later in College. He started his University journey in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and finished his degree in Barcelona. Menis remembers those as some very exciting years in his life due to democracy being about to be established in Spain, which made the desire of incredible freedom and collective joy contagious. His two main inspirations where his then professors Pep Bonet and Rafael Cáceres, who "opened dreams and brought common sense and harmony" into his work.
Once he graduated, he moved to Paris and started working with Ricardo Bofill in the first period of his architectural studio. This gave him the opportunity to meet new friends and learn from a European world that was very different from what he had been used to in Spain. It is in Paris where he learns and participates in several competitions, such as La Villette, something that stimulates his pleasure of teamwork that surpasses itself in order to offer the best solution for a project.

Representative Projects