PROFILE

Contemporary Design Studio is committed to the innovative praxis of architecture and urban planning. The firm approaches each new project through a conscientious analysis of its context, undertakes the design of buildings and master plans in awareness of rooted building traditions, and seeks for creative arrangements that unleash new possibilities for space and use. We believe in the coexistence of timeless canons and inventive exploration, with the tools and opportunities they both offer, as the driving engine of truly contemporary design. We derive from them solutions that are tailor-made to both site and user and help our clients achieve their goals. 

The firm is led by one founding principal, Eduardo A. Pardo-Fernandez, and sustains an international practice out of its Miami office. 

As a very lean, adaptable organization, we are capable of developing projects on a conventional timeline through the different stages of design, approval, and construction. We can equally focus on the short, intense spans of design charrettes for both architectural and urban developments, where different options are weighed and decisions made in a matter of days, and their subsequent follow up. Our team of highly qualified professionals can work with a sustained degree of autonomy, yet also be a good fit into larger multidisciplinary efforts. A wide network of specialized consultants provides us with a great source of knowledge and experience from which to choose, according to the needs of each particular project.  

Besides an attuned sensibility and sound design abilities for both traditionally-minded and modern aesthetics, an understanding of ever-changing government rules and regulations allows us to offer invaluable help to see our projects through. In addition, an inquisitive, detail-oriented approach to the myriad possibilities of construction helps us design attractive buildings and places that are easy to assemble and maintain. 

SERVICES

ARCHITECTURE

Architectural services constitute the bulk of our production. Regardless of scale, all projects receive the same attention to detail and undergo a rigorous process of analysis and conceptualization. Thereon, the firm’s staff has the expertise to provide full architectural design services, from schematic design through the end of the construction stage. 

We endeavor to engage all relevant parties in the creative process early, since successful design and construction must be collaborative. By having architects, urbanists, landscape architects, engineers, contractors, subcontractors and others have a say from the beginning we save a lot of effort, money, and time for our clients.

Minding our designs’ responses to their urban context, climate, and ethos of the place is a permanent concern of ours. We pay attention to these and considerations of zoning, finance, construction, and performance as we seek to create beautiful architecture: luminous spaces of great quality where people can thrive.

URBAN PLANNING

We approach scenario planning, urban design, and zoning code writing from the bedrock of the Charter of the New Urbanism, as a set of guiding principles. The goal is to contribute to the creation of compact, walkable, transit-friendly, resilient communities of enduring value and personality along the rural-to-urban transect continuum. Communities that appreciate quickly, are recognized by the Market as a success, and ultimately enrich people’s lives. 

Urban infill plans constitute the majority of our projects, the design of which may be accompanied by form-based codes or regulations to ease their long-term implementation. If requested, we can also advise on phasing strategies that are practical to finance and build while creating discernible places that incrementally add value over time. 

We also generate and calibrate building types as they are used to conform urban places, and as the only means to test zoning ordinances. 

FOUNDING PRINCIPAL

Eduardo Antonio Pardo-Fernández AIA, NCARB, CNU-A

Eduardo Pardo-Fernández is an architect and urban planner, and the founding principal of Contemporary Design Studio. Starting with the 2002 award of the Vision 3 competition for the Casa de las Americas Library in Havana, Cuba, he developed a growing expertise in architecture and place making, later applied in projects ranging from affordable and emergency housing to high-end custom residences and institutional buildings. Also involved in wider-scale undertakings, from urban infill and suburban retrofits to new communities, including hospital campus and healthcare facility planning, in both public and private sectors, and working in Europe, the Middle East, North, South and Central America and the Caribbean.