Every other week, we get personal with a major architect for our new series the Proust Questionnaire. For this week's iteration, we're talking with Fernando Romero, the OMA-trained architect who heads the Mexico City-based studio fr·ee.

Who is your favorite living architect?

Thomas Heatherwick.

Who is your favorite dead architect?

Oscar Niemeyer.

How would you describe the personality of your practice?

Indescribable.

What is your practice’s main weakness?

Obsession with complex projects. 

What is the trait that you appreciate most in a building?

Surprises that excite you. 

What is the trait that you deplore most in a building?

Its disconnection with the time it was made. 

What is the trait that you most appreciate in an architect?

Invention.

What is the trait that you most deplore in an architect?

If celebrates the past. 

What is your favorite type of project to work on?

Any… where client, site and program are extraordinary. 

What does architectural happiness mean?

I don’t know. 

What does architectural misery mean?

Maybe related with poverty. 

Where would you most like to build (where you haven’t already)?

On the jungle. 

What is your favorite color?

Any.

What is your favorite flower?

So many… 

What is your favorite bird?

Toucan.

Who is your favorite poet?

Cavafy or Pesoa. 

Who is your favorite artist?

Maurizio Cattelan.

When do you lie?

Did I?

What talent would you most like to have?

To know how to dance. 

What architectural strategies do you most overuse?

Desire, put your attention in what you want to achieve.

How would you like to die?

Surrounded by my kids.