About
DONIS is an international studio of architecture, urbanism, research, industrial design, and art. The studio has won several international prizes, including the Dubai Frame, selected as the first-prize winner from 926 proposals in an international competition regulated by UNESCO-UIA; the first prize for the National Palace of Justice in Paris; and the winning design for a new landmark for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games at the City of London. DONIS designs, develops, and builds projects across a wide range of scales and programs, consistently pursuing innovative, sustainable, and socially engaged architecture. DONIS was founded by Fernando Donis, Mexican Dutch architect who received his Master’s degree from the Architectural Association in London through the Design Research Laboratory (DRL), where he studied under Patrik Schumacher and Brett Steele. He also received a PhD in Architecture from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), through the doctoral research program The City as a Project, led by with Pier Vittorio Aureli. His doctoral research, FRAME, is a five-chapter study of the archetype of the frame and its role in the architectural and urban history and culture of Mexico. Following his studies at the Architectural Association, Fernando Donis worked closely with Rem Koolhaas as an Associate at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) for nine years, from 2001 to 2009. During this period, he was the main designer of the CCTV Headquarters in Beijing, among numerous other architectural projects and masterplans. He also collaborated with AMO, OMA’s research and design branch, contributing to research projects concerning the European Union. Fernando Donis has taught at the Berlage Institute and the Academy of Architecture in Rotterdam, as well as at Universidad Iberoamericana and Universidad Anáhuac in Mexico, integrating architectural research, design, and urbanism across multiple scales. His work and career have received international recognition. In 2011, CNN Expansión selected him as one of the 30 most promising and influential people in Mexico. In 2015, Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs selected him as one of the country’s most creative Mexicans living abroad.
Frame PhD
Doctoral Research, TU Delft — The City as a Project, supervised by Pier Vittorio Aureli
This doctoral research at TU Delft, developed within The City as a Project program under the supervision of Pier Vittorio Aureli, investigates the FRAME as an architectural and urban archetype in Mexican culture. The thesis is structured around five chapters: Teotihuacan, explored as a city of frames through the Calzada de los Muertos, the Ciudadela, and its repetitive courtyard housing; the Mesoamerican codices, whose pictographic systems frame rituals, agriculture, production, and daily life; the murals of Diego Rivera, revealing hidden compositional grids that frame colonization, culture, and Mexican identity; the public frames of Mexico City—including Parque México, UNAM university campus, La Merced Market, The Plaza of three cultures in Tlatelolco, and the CUPA housing complex; and finally, a comparative study of the tectonic frames of Luis Barragán and Mies van der Rohe.
The research explores the potential of the Frame as a tool for reinventing architecture and the city. Frames are understood as the most fundamental architectural devices, mediating the relationship between inside and outside, private and public, and individual and collective life. By framing the city with public spaces, parks and nature at both the urban and architectural scales, the thesis proposes a new model of urban living that fosters well-being, cultural awareness, and planetary sustainability.
