Erik Carranza of Anonima
Anonima | Communicating Structures, Jungle of Hoops, Mexico City, Mexico, 2016. Image credit: Oswaldo Ramírez & Anonima
Established in 1981, the Architectural League Prize for Young Architects + Designers is a juried portfolio competition for early-career practitioners in North America, organized around a yearly theme.
Erik Carranza of Anonima won a 2024 award.
Erik Carranza founded Anonima with Sindy Martínez Lortia in 2007. Based in Mexico City and Oaxaca City, the multidisciplinary studio engages in both design and research projects related to urban spatial practices, ranging across scales from street-level interventions to institutional built work to advocacy campaigns. Across this diverse portfolio, Anonima explores the ways in which architecture creates relationships between human beings and place while maintaining a “playful character” in all projects, according to the studio.
Recent projects include:
- Alejandro Garcia’s High School, an educational facility with a rooftop that holds a basketball court, open classroom, and observatory, designed to facilitate student engagement with nature
- Communicating Structures, Jungle of Hoops, an intervention in downtown Mexico City composed of 42 repetitive rings that create a multi-use structure for play and recreation
- Skate Park in La Mexicana Public Park, the first skate park in Mexico City with both a street and below grade bowl area, certified for international competitions
Erik Carranza holds a bachelor of architecture from the Mexican Faculty of Architecture, Design, and Communication at La Salle University and a master’s degree in Urban Design from CENTRO, Design, Film, and Television. He is currently a faculty member of both programs.
Carranza was a member of the Mexican National System of Art Creators (SNCA) for the 2020-2023 cycle with the theme “City, Body, and Urban Sport.” He also received a 2016 cultural residency at Casa Vecina from the Fundación del Centro Histórico in Mexico City focused on the theme: “an anthropology of sport and play in the historic center of Mexico City.”
