April 14, 2021

This year's Arfaa lecture series concluded with a well-attended lecture by celebrated Mexican architect, designer and critic, Fernanda Canales. The overarching theme of her lecture ‘Shared Spaces’ is exemplified by some of her best projects. Her work elegantly brings together Mexican cultural heritage with the vocabulary of modernism in a way that is both rooted and fresh. She spoke about creating both interior and exterior places for people to gather, demonstrating in her lecture projects that open interiors to the outside for people to feel invited. 

Fernanda Canales received her undergraduate training at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City, a MA from the Universidad Politecnica de Cataluña in Barcelona, and her PhD from ETSAM in Madrid. Establishing her own firm in Mexico City, her work been praised for its rich spatial qualities and expressive use of materials. Canales has also authored several books including Private Spaces, Shared Structures (2020), Vivienda Colectiva en México (2017), and Architecture in Mexico 1900- 2010: The Construction of Modernity (2013).