Amanda Levete

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Amanda Levete
CBE
Amanda Levete.jpg
Born (1955-11-17) 17 November 1955 (age 65)
Bridgend, Wales
NationalityBritish
Alma materArchitectural Association
OccupationArchitect
Spouse(s)
AwardsRIBA Stirling Prize
PracticeAL A
Buildings

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

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]

Exterior Perspective of The Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology
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. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g 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. ^ Jump up to: a b 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. ^ Jump up to: a b 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.

External links[]

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