Amanda Levete

Amanda Jane Levete CBE (born 17 November 1955) is a Stirling Prize-winning British architect,[2] and principal of AL A.

Amanda Levete
CBE
Born (1955-11-17) 17 November 1955
Bridgend, Wales
NationalityBritish
Alma materArchitectural Association
OccupationArchitect
Spouse(s)
AwardsRIBA Stirling Prize
PracticeAL A
Buildings

Training

Originally from Bridgend, south Wales, Levete was a student at St Paul's Girls' School, London and the Hammersmith School of Art, enrolled at the Architectural Association[3] became a trainee at Alsop & Lyall and an architect at the Richard Rogers Partnership.[4] As co-founder of the firm Powis & Levete, she was nominated for the RIBA's '40 under 40' exhibition in 1985.[5] Levete joined Jan Kaplický at Future Systems as a partner in 1989,[6] served as a trustee of the arts organisation Artangel from 2000 to 2013, and is a trustee of the Young Foundation.

Career

Levete is credited with making the Future Systems' organic and conceptual designs a reality.[7] Recognised as one of the UK's most innovative practices, Future Systems completed works include the Selfridges department store in Birmingham[3] and the Lord's Media Centre, which won the Royal Institute of British Architects' Stirling Prize in 1999.[8]

Levete formed AL A (formerly known as Amanda Levete Architecture) in 2009, and in 2011 the practice won the international competition to design a new entrance, courtyard and gallery for London's Victoria and Albert Museum,[3][9] which features a porcelain courtyard.[3] AL_A's projects include the MAAT (Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology) project in Lisbon for the EDP Foundation,[3][10] the Central Embassy project in Bangkok,[3][11] 10 Hill's Place in London[3][12] and the pop-up restaurant Tincan.[13]

In 2014 AL_A was chosen to design the second MPavilion for the Naomi Milgrom Foundation in Melbourne, the first to be designed by an international architect.[14] The M-Pavilion, made from fibreglass overlapping petals, opened to the public in October 2015.[15]

The Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) in Lisbon opened on 5 October 2016 with site-specific work from Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster. The €20m museum sits on the River Tagus (Rio Tejo) to the west of the city centre and was described as "sinuous"[16] and "one of Europe's most lyrical new museums".[17] Also in 2016, AL_A completed the 13-hectare media campus headquarters building for Sky Central project in London central in London.[18]

Awards

In the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours Amanda Levete was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE), for services to architecture.[19]

In 2018, Levete was awarded the Jane Drew Prize by the Architects' Journal and Architectural Review.[20][21]

MAAT - The Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (2016)

Personal life

Levete met the Czech architect Jan Kaplický in the 1980s. They married in 1991, had a son, Josef, in 1995 and divorced in 2006. Levete and Kaplický worked professionally together from 1989 to 2009.[7] Since 2007 Levete has been married to Ben Evans, director of the London Design Festival.[9]

On 19 March 2017, Amanda Levete appeared as a castaway on the Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs.[22]

References
  1. "Absent friends", Building, 12 October 2007
  2. Nonie Niesewand (March 2015). "Through the Glass Ceiling". Architectural Digest.
  3. Phillips, Christine (2015). "Amanda Levete: organic forms and material complexity". Architecture Australia. 104 (1): 108–110. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
  4. "Amanda Levete: the social networker", Architects' Journal, 25 September 2014, retrieved 15 October 2015
  5. "Out of time: Amanda Levete", Building Design, 1 April 2011, retrieved 15 October 2015
  6. Booth, Robert (17 October 2008), "From a shining future to a bitter end as 'blob' architecture pioneers part company", The Guardian, retrieved 15 October 2015
  7. Grice, Elizabeth (11 March 2009), "'My greatest regret is that I didn't make peace with him in life'", The Daily Telegraph, retrieved 24 October 2011
  8. "Jan Kaplicky, a visionary, dies", Architectural Record, p. 27, March 2009
  9. Jeffries, Stuart (9 April 2011), "The Saturday interview: architect Amanda Levete", The Guardian, retrieved 15 October 2015
  10. Amanda Levete puts on a show in Lisbon, Phaidon, retrieved 15 October 2015
  11. "Central Embassy by Amanda Levete Architects", de zeen, 26 March 2009, retrieved 15 October 2015
  12. "10 Hills Place / Amanda Levete Architects". Arch Daily. 10 September 2009.
  13. Haldane, James (18 September 2014), "Does what it says on the tin: Amanda Levete's Tincan Restaurant", The Architectural Review, retrieved 15 October 2015
  14. "Amanda Levete unveils forest canopy design for second Melbourne MPavilion", de zeen, 10 July 2015, retrieved 15 October 2015
  15. Mairs, Jessica (5 October 2015), "Amanda Levete's tree canopy-like MPavilion opens in Melbourne", de zeen
  16. Wainwright, Oliver (6 October 2016). "'The hotspot of hotspots': Amanda Levete's €20m Lisbon museum opens with a sinuous swoosh". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 21 October 2016.
  17. Glancey, Jonathan (22 September 2016). "A New Museum in Lisbon Pushes the barriers of Art, Architecture and Light". Newsweek.
  18. Skye Central Project in London by AL_A
  19. "No. 61962". The London Gazette (Supplement). 17 June 2017. p. B9.
  20. Mollard, Manon (1 February 2018). "Amanda Levete awarded Jane Drew Prize". The Architects Journal.
  21. Cheng, Linda (6 February 2018). "Amanda Levete wins 2018 Jane Drew Prize".
  22. "Amanda Levete, Desert Island Discs – BBC Radio 4". BBC. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
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