Martin Rein-Cano was born in Buenos Aires in 1967. He studied Art History at Frankfurt University and Landscape Architecture at the Technical Universities of Hannover and Karlsruhe. He trained in the office of Peter Walker and Martha Schwartz in San Francisco and has worked with the office of Gabi Kiefer in Berlin. In 1996 he founded the TOPOTEK 1 office. In 1999, Lorenz Dexler became a managing partner at the studio.
Martin Rein-Cano has been appointed as a guest professor in Europe and North America and in 2011 he lectured at the University of Pennsylvania in the Department of Landscape Architecture. He frequently lectures at internationally renowned universities and cultural institutions and regularly serves on competition juries. Several professional books and articles have been published exclusively on his work, which has been honored with many awards and prizes. Most recently in 2013 TOPOTEK 1 received the gold medal from the International Olympic Committee IOC/IAKS Architecture Award for the Superkilen project in Copenhagen and the bronze medal for the Heerenschürli sport facilities in Zurich; the Red Dot ‘Best of the Best’ Award, the Institute Honor Of National AIA Awards and the Award of Recognition for the German Landscape Architecture Prize 2013. TOPOTEK 1’s project Superkilen was a finalist for the Mies van der Rohe Prize -the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture 2013.