At the age of nine, Robles-Durán moved to the border region between Tijuana, Mexico, and San Diego, California, in the midst of the rapid urban transformation stimulated by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

[2] Among the many projects that Rhizoma built was the award-winning “Galeria Jardin” (2000), which received The Honor Award of The American Institute of Architects, San Diego Chapter in 2001 and the “Serial House #1” (2004), which was selected by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego to be part of Strange New World[3] (2006), a traveling exhibition retrospective of art and design from Tijuana.

[citation needed] Robles-Durán began his academic career in Tijuana, teaching architecture and urban design at the Universidad Iberoamericana del Noroeste from 2000 to 2003.

In 2004 he left Baja California to study in the Netherlands, where he received an advanced master's degree in Architecture and Urbanism from Rotterdam's Berlage Institute.

[5] Robles-Duran held the position of director of the program until the beginning of 2014, and today continues his academic career as a tenured associate professor of Urbanism at this institution.