Daniel Florez, architect, studied architecture at the E.T.S.A.Madrid and the E.P.F.L Lausanne, graduating in 2008 with the best distinction with a graduation project that won several awards, including the prize of the X Biennial of Spanish Architecture for the best Final Degree Project of the Architecture Schools of Spain.
In 2006, while still a student, he moved to Paris to work at François Roche's art and architecture research office (R&Sie(n)), where he had the opportunity to collaborate in projects with two important contemporary artists, Pierre Huyghe and Philippe Parreno.
In 2009, after a period in NYC, he began working in one of the most important offices in the world, Herzog & DeMeuron, getting involved in large-scale and complex projects . He is involved in the design phases and construction supervision of the BBVA Headquarters in Madrid and the colossal Hamburg Philharmonic Opera (Elb Philarmonie).
At Herzog & DeMeuron's headquarters in Basel, he also designs and participates in competition winning teams such as the Torre Gasklocka skyscrapers in Stockholm, Tower of Woodwharf in London , University of Skolkovo in Moscow, Lux Cultural Complex in São Paulo, or the non-profit project Arena do Morro, a gym inside a favela of the city of Natal, in the Brazilian northeast.
This last work, a smaller scale building within a tight budget in a site without developed industry and resources, makes him work hand to hand with local artisans , making virtue from necessity, an experience that will mark his career forever.
In 2014 Daniel Florez settles in Tibau do Sul, a small fishing village in the Brazilian northeast with the intention of undertaking an apprenticeship through a "return to the origins". As in the Italian Renaissance , a time when there was no distinction between who conceived a work , who calculated it and who executed it , he developed a self - built architecture pieces working in contact with artisans , local workers and with a deep respect for sustainability and landscape sensibility . In 2015 he signs his first works as VILELA FLOREZ, with the Brazilian architect Mariana Vilela.
In 2016, while he develops his practice in Brazil, he wins an International Competition for the renovation of the entrance and the Plaza de Chueca metro station, in the historic center of Madrid.
In 2017, VILELA FLOREZ publishes their work and gets great critical success with many publications in architectural media such as: Wallpaper, Deezen, Designboom, Archdaily, Domus, Arquine, Architecture and Construction, Design, Dwell, Princeton Architectural Press, Gestalten Trendhunter....
In 2019, design magazine WALLPAPER selects VILELA FLOREZ as one of the emerging architectural practices of the year with a special publication in the June issue, featuring a photo shoot at David Chipperfield's James Simon Gallery building in Berlin.
In 2019 Daniel Florez is invited to participate in the 2020 Venice Architecture Biennale.
In 2020, Daniel Florez is invited to give lectures within the course of Contemporary Architecture in the Northeast of Brazil, organized by the Universities of of Alagoas and Ceará, which is published in a special issue of the legendary magazine PROJETO.
Currently, Daniel Florez signs his works as Atelier Daniel Florez and has just finished two self-constructed works of great environmental sensibility and poetic narrative, the Gutter House and the Folhas Sagradas pavilion.
After nine years of constructive apprenticeship with a long time construction experimentation on site, understanding the construction site as a laboratory where construction details are developed , Daniel Florez has opened an office in Madrid and returns to the large and metropolitan scale after winning a competition with L.F.Inglada for a large Hospital in Madrid which construction will begin in 2023.
Atelier Daniel Florez works globally offering excellence in design while fulfilling the obligations the obligations we have to preserve our planet and build a low carbon future. Trying to offer MORE with LESS. More comfort and more beauty with less energy, resources and gas emissions, looking for highly efficient solutions without expensive and high-maintenance technologies and approaching design with pragmatic intelligence and poetic emotion, subscribing to the famous THINK GLOBAL, ACT LOCAL.