Felipe Hernández, Ph.D., is a Colombian-born architect living and working in the United Kingdom. He is an Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Studies at the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow Architect at King’s College Cambridge, where he also serves as Director of Studies in Architecture. He was the first Latin American to direct the Centre of Latin American Studies at Cambridge (CLAS) and is currently the Director of the M.Phil. in Architecture and Urban Studies (MAUS). His research explores the intersection between architecture and urbanism under conditions of 'coloniality', seeking relevant approaches to teaching and practicing architecture in the Americas.
Main topics of research:
Architectures and Urbanisms in the Americas
Social Housing and Housing Design
Decolonial and Postcolonial Practices in Architecture and Architectural Pedagogy
Felipe's research explores the intersection between architecture and urbanism in conditions of 'coloniality', looking for pertinent approaches to teaching and practicing architecture in the Americas. Felipe has published extensively on Modern Architecture in Latin America tackling critical issues such as race, gender and socio-economic disparity since the beginning of the twentieth century.
He has published extensively on Modern Architecture in Latin America, addressing critical issues such as race, gender, and socio-economic disparity since the early twentieth century. He is the author of
Hernández, F. Bhabha sobre la arquitectura. Barcelona – Reverté. (2024) https://www.reverte.com/libro/psa-05-bhabha-sobre-la-arquitectura_155256/
Lara, F. and F. Hernández (eds) (2021) Decolonising the Spatial History of the Americas. Austin: Center for American Architecture and Design.
Lara, F. and F. Hernández (eds) (2021) Spatial Concepts for the Americas. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Hernández, F. and A. Becerra Santacruz (eds) (2017) Marginal Urbanisms: Informal and Formal Development in Cities of Latin America. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholar Publishing.
Hernández, F. (2010) Bhabha for Architects. London – New York: Routledge. (Translated to five languages)
Hernández, F. (2010) Beyond Modernist Masters: Latin American Architecture Today. Basel – Berlin – Boston: Birkhäuser.
His third monograph, Spaces of Coloniality (Routldge) explores the persistence of colonial principles and practices in contemporary architecture and architectural pedagogy. It focuses primarily on cities in the Andean Region of South America, introducing arguments with great relevance for the study of architecture and urbanism everywhere. He is also Lead Editor of The Routledge Companion to Critical Approaches in Race and Architecture (Routledge), a book that expands current debates about the relationship between race and architecture.
He has also recently established the Housing Design-Research Collaborative with architects at Universidad de Valle in Cali, Colombia. The collaborative started with a Summer School in 2024 with a view to develop alternative and more pertinent approaches to social housing in Colombia, and other countries in the Latin American region.
