The Office

In 1970, Federico Echevarría Sainz founded his Architecture and Urban Planning Office: Estudio de Urbanismo y Arquitectura Federico Echevarría y Asociados, today known as ftE Federico & Tatiana Echevarría, based on the principles of a modern architecture inspired by the world of art, especially by sculpture, resulting in a concept of “architecture in motion.”

Throughout the more than 40 years since its foundation, several renowned professionals from different fields and countries have worked for the Office: Miguel Gómez, Marie Laurence Cerisier,… and Tatiana Echevarría who, after finishing her specialization in the US with I.M. Pei, joined the Office to collaborate with her father providing, for each project, a combination of experience and modernity and design and management and reinforcing the interdisciplinary team approach.

After more than 45 years of experience working in large, unique and comprehensive projects involving architecture, engineering and landscaping from a “global design” perspective, we keep growing with the same enthusiasm and forward-looking approach as when the Office was founded as well as with the same values and fundamentals of RELIABILITY, QUALITY, ADAPTABILITY and VANGUARD to ensure the best performance and effectiveness both in the design and construction phase, saving time and money.

The Office has pioneered the integrated use of technical and technological innovations in projects, including laminated screwed glass and glass supported by structural silicone, which was implemented for the first time in Spain. The concomitant use of pre-tensioned and post-tensioned structures led the way for large spans, avoiding the use of pillars and therefore, creating open-concept floor plans.

However, the main contribution to energy efficiency and environmental comfort in terms of noise and pollution came with the design of the first design of a CLIMATE ACTIVE DOUBLE FAÇADE, a technique implemented and developed in most of the 50 office buildings designed by the Office. Currently, the concomitant use of these technologies has allowed the Office to become a leader in the research and construction of Smart Buildings

The elements and invariants governing the project design include integration into the environment, designing a city concept, and the continuous search for simplicity, the LESS IS MORE principle is applied to both the formal solution and the building details. Façades are designed as solutions closer to sculpture where the values of buildings in motion prevail with texture, colour, rigour and austerity in the use of materials. These elements are implemented inside to provide continuity and they are integrated in the structures and equipments, making the entire set an active part of the design, a perfectly organized whole.

Half of the more than 2,000 projects designed from the perspective of creative freedom, half of them have been developed, account for more than 2.000.000 built sq2 and provide extensive experience.

Knowledge and experience are also applied to other areas: dwellings, offices, business parks, hospitality facilities in the beach and in town, shopping parks, equipment, funerary architecture, refurbishment and adaptation of buildings, landscaping and gardening, international experience.

ftE Federico & Tatiana Echevarría is an International company with offices in Madrid, Lima, Lisbon and Budapest which develops large projects in Algeria, Qatar, Panama, Peru, Colombia, Italia, China, Budapest, Germany, Cuba, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Morocco… Internationally, we have also formed strategic alliances to increase our knowledge about the legislation and the needs of those countries where we work, either participating in architecture competitions or developing our projects upon request.