Mariana Leguia is a co-principal of LLAMA_LIMA, an architecture and urban design multidisciplinary research studio based in Lima and Toronto.

Since 2021, after moving permanently to Toronto, she has been a sessional lecturer at the Daniels Faculty of Architecture, Landscape, and Design in the Master of Architecture, Master of Urban Design, and Bachelor of Arts in Architectural Studies programs. 

LLAMA centers its discourse on creating an open and more inclusive city, focusing on the city of Lima, a car-based and densely segregated environment. Their projects include sustainable mobility strategies and the creation of public space, understanding the pace and sequenced experience needed to wander and wonder in the city, and integrating nature-based solutions to regenerate and transform our built environments into more inclusive ecosystems. This lens has been applied to both urban and architectural projects, looking at the built environment and overall context as a place to dwell. These efforts have positioned LLAMA as one of the most influential practices advocating for this purpose in Lima since 2010.

Building on these values, LLAMA has developed several urban and architectural projects for UNESCO World Heritage Sites and other locations within the urban and natural landscape. Their proposals and visions merge history within existing conditions, the private with the public realm, grounding projects as a hinge between the two. LLAMA's projects have been recognized in publications and awards, including the Spanish International Architecture Award and the International Architecture Award, the first prize in the Ontario Wood Design Awards in the residential category, a nomination for the MCHAP Emerging Architecture in 2018, and winning the international competition to expand the Lima Art Museum (selected from 387 proposals from 56 countries). 

Mariana works on several projects simultaneously and recently completed the development of two pilot projects for public spaces in the historic center of Lima. These projects intend to recover a Pre-Columbian irrigation canal, which is still in use, launching contemporary nature-based solutions to mitigate climate change and manage water resources in the desertic city of Lima. 

She studied architecture at Ricardo Palma University in Lima and urban design at the London School of Economics (MSc Cities Program). She previously worked with Teddy Cruz Studio in California, KPF (Kohn Pedersen Fox), and PLP (Polisano & Leventhal Partnership) in London, before establishing LLAMA.