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.
Newton 127
Mexico City, Mexico · 2016
Newton 127 is a residential building that reinterprets the MAYA (Most Advanced Yet Acceptable) design principle through an exposed concrete architecture based on an innovative oblique grid. Familiar yet unexpected, the project explores how subtle geometric transformations can generate a new architectural language while remaining deeply rooted in the collective memory of the city.
The project marks a pivotal moment in the evolution of DONIS Studio, representing the beginning of our research into the function of the oblique and its application across architecture and urbanism. It also revisits one of the discipline's most fundamental devices—the grid—previously explored extensively in our PhD research through the hidden compositional structures of Diego Rivera's murals. Here, the grid is transformed into a refined architectural expression that is minimal in appearance yet rich in spatial complexity, originality, and elegance.
A recessed black steel base conceals the pedestrian and vehicular entrances, allowing the gridded volume of oblique frames to appear as if floating above Newton Street in the Polanco district of Mexico City.
Much like quiet luxury in fashion—defined not by conspicuous branding but by exceptional quality, precision, and timeless refinement—Newton 127 expresses its identity through proportion, materiality, and craftsmanship rather than formal excess.
