[1][4] He earned degrees in architecture from the Paris-Villemin School of Architecture, a precursor of the École nationale supérieure d'architecture de Paris-Val de Seine [fr], in 1987, and in history of art from the École du Louvre.
[1][4] Bonfils began his career in Paris in 1987, working with Christian de Portzamparc, Alain Sarfati and Jean-Marie Charpentier.
[4] In 1995, he and his father won an international competition for the reconstruction of central Beirut; he returned there and was based there for the remainder of his life, initially working in town planning, for example on pedestrianisation in Beirut and master planning for other cities including Byblos and Baalbeck.
[4] His East Village building, in central Beirut's Mar Mikhaël district, consisting of a slim apartment tower above an art gallery and clad partly in dark stone and wood as a reinterpretation of traditional Lebanese architecture, won the 2015 Asia Architecture Award in the housing division.
[1][2][5] On 4 August 2020, Bonfils was fatally injured in his apartment in the East Village building he designed, by a massive ammonium nitrate explosion at the Port of Beirut.