Bernardo Fort-Brescia

Since founding Arquitectonica in 1977, Miami-based architect Bernardo Fort-Brescia, FAIA, has created sustainable and functional buildings. Alongside his fellow Arquitectonica architects, he draws on modernist sensibilities by taking advantage of preexisting features of a building’s location. Rather than installing air conditioning and creating enclosed spaces, Bernardo Fort-Brescia harnesses a location’s sunlight and weather patterns and designs open-air floor plans to make buildings more useable without wasting energy or resources.

Abiding by these principles, he creates buildings that fit the geographic character, encompassing the natural and manmade elements, of a location. As the impact of climate change has increased worldwide over the years, Arquitectonica’s design principles have gained renewed relevance, as they align with current developments in sustainable architecture.

Mr. Fort-Brescia explained, in a 2016 interview with Inspicio, that he creates buildings that can withstand increasingly harsh weather, like hurricanes, and rapidly changing geography, like rising sea levels, with the understanding that climate change is a worldwide concern. Miami, which sits barely above sea level, is one of many locations globally facing these challenges, and Mr. Fort-Brescia seeks to raise awareness of architecture’s role in adapting to climate change.