About The NomadFlyer
The Storyteller
What I like is to tell stories.
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I trained as an architect, understanding architecture as a tool to see the world rather than as a vocation as a builder. And what I enjoy most is the inspiration of the project, looking for a thousand references and sources, looking for winks that launch the idea and especially how to tell it, storytelling, how to engage someone with an idea, with a concept, making the hearts fall in love so the heads want to build buildings.
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Everything is like a dance, it has its steps, it has its aesthetics, and that's how I talk to my team, when I tell them things, be they battles from my past, be they information that I just read, to plant seeds in their creative process, to motivate them along the way. That's why I stick with the process, which leads us to design anything, should it be a building, a park, or a lamp.
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The "What" is the least, I care about "How". And that brings me to the kitchen, to cooking, which also for me is another way of telling stories, a journey through flavors and foods, where you create an experience in a moment but that makes you fly to others because you already touch the senses, and that is what inspires me, knowing where the ingredients come from. What interests me is to tell, that is my gift.
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Before studying architecture, I wanted to be a doctor, I still think about it, but what always attracted me is Biology, because it explained the reason for things and processes, for me it was the TV series "Once upon a time" personified, it was like a story, one of those that hooks you, and I enjoyed it effortlessly. Maybe I didn't have enough vocation, perhaps my goal was never to heal people, but to understand how we function to solve their pains, to pass that message on to them.
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During school, I remember my classmates stressed with the amount of information they wanted to accumulate in Art, History, or Aesthetics and composition, data and data that they memorized in a mechanical way when for me it was more of a pleasant journey. They used to put us an image of a door or a window and four answer options, of who was it from and why and who was not from and why. For that, the mechanical method did not work, but to understand the history, to get your version and stay with the essence of each period or architect.
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When I travel, I write, and not for myself, It has never been about journaling, I speak to anyone, to whoever reads me. When I go to an art workshop, I end up describing urban spaces with a text narrating what was happening in the square. When I post a photograph on social networks, there is always a message behind it, a story to glimpse.
Wherever I look, in my past, in my experiences, I always end up in the same alley, the one who tells stories, that's why The NomadFlyer came to light, sharing all those past ones, making room for those that are to come, hoping that it´s also inspiring for others.
Manuel Fernández Corral (The NomadFlyer)
Trained as an architect in Spain at the ETSAC of A Coruña, at the École d'Architecture de Lille, EAL, France. and at the Architectural Association AA in London, UK. He is a registered architect in Illinois, USA, and member of the AIA (American Institute of Architects), a registered architect in the United Kingdom through the ARB, and in Spain through the Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos de Galicia COAG, since 2004. He is also trained in sustainability and registered as LEED AP BD+C and ID+C.
After working at ARA Arquitectos, he joined the studio of Norman Foster (Foster + Partners) in 2004, and is part of his design team for more than 15 years in various locations (London, Madrid, New York or Philadelphia), leaving the company as Associate Partner to lead his own design studio in the firm Skidmore Owings & Merril in its Chicago office.
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Later and after several collaborations, he joins Roth Architecture (Azulik) in Tulum, Mexico as Head of Design, leading a creative and multidisciplinary community that offers a unique organic architecture, through a holistic understanding, getting involved in the different areas of creation, thus offering unique experiences for users, and dressing with architecture and narratives a permanent dialogue with nature.
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Throughout his career, he has been responsible for leading numerous projects and teams, implementing and directing their design strategies to achieve exceptional architecture and deliver high-quality standards. His experience includes the design of projects of great complexity in all areas, from mixed-use to residential, commercial, hospital, infrastructure, entertainment, or cultural.
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Interested in the user experience through the creation of environments and memories, that positively impact on people’s lives in a meaningful and sustainable way.
Passionate about storytelling, and how to share ideas, making sure that great designs are tied to a great story.
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