He graduated from the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris in 1961.
In 1965, he participated in the Groupe international d'architecture prospective (GIAP) along with Michel Ragon, Yona Friedman, Paul Maymont, Georges Patrix, and Nicolas Schöffer.
He received the Grand Prix de l'urbanisme for his project Ville en X.
Fernier built numerous public and private works in Paris, Papeete, and elsewhere in French Polynesia.
However, the curators of the Musée d'Orsay rejected the work,[3] calling it "fanciful".