Born in Valladolid, where his grandfather was an architect, but from the age of two, he lived in Cádiz where he saw the Light. He is a Professor in the Madrid School of Architecture, ETSAM, where he has been a tenured Professor for more than 50 years. He has taught at the ETH in Zurich and the EPFL in Lausanne as well as the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, the Kansas State University, the CUA University in Washington, L’Ecole d’Architecture in Tournai, Belgique, the Buffalo University and the Technische Universität Wien. From 2017 to 2020 he has been Emeritus Contracted Professor at ETSAM UPM in Madrid. He has given lectures all over the world, and has received significant recognition like the Torroja Award for his Caja Granada or the Award of the UPM University for his Excellence in Teaching. In 2013 he was awarded the Heinrich Tessenow Gold Medal, the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the International Award Architecture in Stone in Verona, and the RIBA International Fellowship 2014 of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Also in 2014 he was elected Full Member to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando of Spain. In 2015, he was awarded the BigMat 2015 in Berlin and the International Prize of Spanish Architecture (PAEI 2015). And won the 1st Prize Ex Aequo to build the new LOUVRE. In 2017, he was awarded the Attolini Lack Medal of the Anahuac University of Mexico, and in 2018, the Honoris Causa Doctorate of the San Pablo CEU University, the Piranesi Prix di Roma, and the 1st Prize to build the new Lycée Français of Madrid. In 2019 he has been elected as an Honorary Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. He has received the Gold Medal for Spanish Architecture in 2020.