Senior Lecturer
School of Arts and Humanities
Fidel is an architect who is very enthusiastic about working in education and has been teaching for several years in both Mexico and the UK. During his PhD studies, he worked as a part-time lecturer at both the University of Nottingham and Nottingham Trent University. His experience merges mature teaching, innovative research and contemporary practice aimed at educating students with a comprehensive approach.
On a professional level, he has worked extensively in Mexico and Italy on diverse projects from private housing to commercial fashion malls, taking a leading role from the conceptual and executive stages to site supervision. This experience allows him to teach stimulating awareness of the holistic nature of architecture, by having explored it in both practice and academia.
His research interests focus on philosophical issues about the relationship between architecture, temporality and place; in his PhD, he developed a phenomenological account as a critique of modern architectural conservation. He has presented a number of papers at international level and has recently published a chapter in a book on interdisciplinary research.
Publications include:
Meraz, Fidel (2010) ‘Mexico as another non-place: utopia, the museum and the problem of identity’, Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review. Journal of the International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments. . Vol XXII. Number 1,Fall.
Meraz, Fidel (2010) ‘Memoria Social y Asimilación: hacia una conjunción de conservación y arquitectura’, Arquitectónica, No. 17. Mexico: Universidad Iberoamericana, A.C., No. 17. Mexico: Universidad Iberoamericana, A.C.
Meraz, Fidel (2009) ‘Educación, arquitectura y tecnología’ Didac. No. 54. Educación Tecnológica. Fall 2009. Mexico: Universidad Iberoamericana, A.C.. No. 54. Educación Tecnológica. Fall 2009. Mexico: Universidad Iberoamericana, A.C.
Meraz, Fidel (2009) ‘Museum's identity crisis in adapted colonial architecture’ 2009 Architectural Design and Global Difference (ADGD) Conference: The multiple faces of identity in the designed environment, Nottingham Trent University., Nottingham Trent University.
Meraz, Fidel (2009) Memory and Assimilation: philosophical issues in culturally significant architecture in Rolf Wiesemes and Maria Karanika-Murray (ed.). Exploring Avenues to Interdisciplinary Research: From Cross- to Multi- to Inter-disciplinarity. Nottingham: Nottingham University Press.Nottingham: Nottingham University Press.
Meraz, Fidel (2008) ‘Architecture and Temporality in Conservation Theory: The Modern Movement and the restoration attitude in Cesare Brandi’ 10th International Docomomo Conference. The Challenge of Change. Dealing with the Legacy of the Modern Movement. Delft: Docomomo. Delft: Docomomo
Meraz, Fidel and Hourston-Hanks, Laura (2007) ‘Memory and Assimilation: Ontological issues regarding the phenomenology of the reception of culturally significant architecture’ Architecture + Phenomenology. Haifa Haifa
Meraz, Fidel (2006) ‘Social Memory and Assimilation: The conflictive conjunction of theories of conservation and architecture’ La dimension Social del Patrimonio. Buenos Aires: Centro Internacional para la Conservación del Patrimonio.
Presented papers include:
2010 Conservation Philosophy: Cesare Brandi and the Place and Time of Human Existence. Presented in Cultural Role of Architecture Conference, University of Lincoln.
2010 Mexico as another non-place: utopia, the museum and the problem of identity. Presented in 12th IASTE Conference The Utopia of Tradition. Beirut, Lebanon.
2010 Thinking Architecture as Art: Cesare Brandi (1906-1988) and his Conservation Philosophy. Presented in the Association for the Study of Modern Italy Annual Conference 2010, Italy and its Past. Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies, London
2008 New Architecture and Historic Restoration: Obstruction vs. Interdisciplinary Action. Presented at 44th Annual Conference of the Society for Latin American Studies, University of Liverpool.
2007 Memory and Assimilation, Ontological Issues regarding the phenomenology of the reception of culturally significant architecture. AHRA International Conference - Kingston University.