Amanda Jane Levete

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

, RA (17 November 1955) explores the transformation of space through her numerous buildings and furniture pieces. Levete enjoys creating the unexpected, and exploring the utilization of opposition. Levete is known for the utilization of organic and man-made products in the same space. Levete is known for making clients visions a reality, because of her talents Levete is a

Stirling Prize The Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize is a British prize for excellence in architecture. It is named after the architect James Stirling, organised and awarded annually by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). The S ...

-winning British architect, and principal of

AL_A AL_A, formerly known as Amanda Levete Architects, is a London-based practice formed in 2009 by Stirling Prize-winning architect Amanda Levete CBE. Practice AL_A was formed in 2009 following the end of Levete's 20-year partnership with the lat ...

Training

Originally from

Bridgend Bridgend (; cy, Pen-y-bont ar Ogwr or just , meaning "the end of the bridge on the Ogmore") is a town in Bridgend County Borough in Wales, west of Cardiff and east of Swansea. The town is named after the medieval bridge over the River Og ...

, south Wales, Levete was a student at

St Paul's Girls' School St Paul's Girls' School is an independent day school for girls, aged 11 to 18, located in Brook Green, Hammersmith, in West London, England. History St Paul's Girls' School was founded by the Worshipful Company of Mercers in 1904, using part o ...

, London and the

Hammersmith School of Art West London College, legally known as the Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College is a large further and higher education college in West London, England, formed in 2002 by the merger between Ealing Tertiary College and Hammersmith and West ...

, enrolled at the

Architectural Association The Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, commonly referred to as the AA, is the oldest independent school of architecture in the UK and one of the most prestigious and competitive in the world. Its wide-ranging programme ...

. After finishing school she became a trainee at Alsop & Lyall and an architect at the

Richard Rogers Partnership RSHP is a British architectural firm, founded in 1977 and previously known as the Richard Rogers Partnership which became Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners. in 2007. The firm rebranded from Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners to simply RSHP on 30 Jun ...

. As co-founder of the firm Powis & Levete, she was nominated for the

RIBA The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) is a professional body for architects primarily in the United Kingdom, but also internationally, founded for the advancement of architecture under its royal charter granted in 1837, three supp ...

's '40 under 40' exhibition in 1985. Levete joined

Jan Kaplický Jan Kaplický (; ; 18 April 1937 – 14 January 2009) was a Neofuturistic Czech architect who spent a significant part of his life in the United Kingdom. He was the leading architect behind the innovative design office, Future Systems. He was be ...

Future Systems Future Systems was a London-based architectural and design practice, formerly headed by Directors Jan Kaplický and Amanda Levete. Future Systems was founded by Kaplický and David Nixon after working with Denys Lasdun, Norman Foster, Renzo ...

as a partner in 1989, served as a trustee of the arts organisation

Artangel Artangel is a London-based arts organisation founded in 1985 by Roger Took. Directed since 1991 by James Lingwood and Michael Morris, it has commissioned and produced a string of notable site-specific works, plus several projects for TV, film, r ...

from 2000 to 2013, and is a trustee of the

Young Foundation The Young Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental think tank based in London that specialises in social innovation to tackle structural inequality. It is named after Michael Young, the British sociologist and social activist who created ...

Career

Levete formed

AL A AL_A, formerly known as Amanda Levete Architects, is a London-based practice formed in 2009 by Stirling Prize-winning architect Amanda Levete CBE. Practice AL_A was formed in 2009 following the end of Levete's 20-year partnership with the lat ...

(formerly known as Amanda Levete Architecture) in 2009, and in 2011 the practice won the international competition to design a new main entrance on

Exhibition Road Exhibition Road is a street in South Kensington, London which is home to several major museums and academic establishments, including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the Natural History Museum. Overview The road gets i ...

. Levete also designed the courtyard and gallery for London's

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, which features a porcelain courtyard (paved with 11,000 handmade ceramic tiles). This commission, is the museum's largest project in over 100 years. AL_A's projects include the

MAAT Maat or Maʽat ( Egyptian: mꜣꜥt /ˈmuʀʕat/, Coptic: ⲙⲉⲓ) refers to the ancient Egyptian concepts of truth, balance, order, harmony, law, morality, and justice. Ma'at was also the goddess who personified these concepts, and regul ...

(Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology) project in Lisbon for the EDP Foundation, the Central Embassy project in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

, 10 Hill's Place in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and the pop-up restaurant Tincan. In 2018 Levete was among 4 ,out of 42 teams, that were shortlisted to redesign the visitor experience for the

Eiffel Tower The Eiffel Tower ( ; french: links=yes, tour Eiffel ) is a wrought-iron lattice tower on the Champ de Mars in Paris, France. It is named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower. Locally nicknamed "' ...

in Paris. Levete and the three other teams will work to redesign how people interact with the tower. This project is in collaboration with the City of Paris government in preparation for the

2024 Summer Olympics ) , nations = TBA , athletes = 10,500 ''(quota limit)'' , events = 329 in 32 sports (48 disciplines) , opening = 26 July 2024 , closing = 11 August 2024 , opened_by = , stadium = Stade de France Jardins du Trocadéro and River Seine , summe ...

. Amanda Levete also enjoys pushing materials and designs to their limit in her furniture pieces. She has produced pieces for Established and Sons. Some of her most acclaimed, furniture pieces are the Drift bench and Around the Corner pieces. In these pieces Levete utilized the simotanious use of advanced software and hand working. Levete and her firm have also been awarded some smaller scale projects like, the design of Wadham College at the

University of Oxford , mottoeng = The Lord is my light , established = , endowment = £6.1 billion (including colleges) (2019) , budget = £2.145 billion (2019–20) , chancellor ...

. Their design of the Dr. Lee Shau Kee Building and William Doo Undergraduate Centre will provide spaces for the student body to gather, as well as support the universities access programs. After Levete's work on the

, Levete and her firm released their proposal to revamp the Paisley Museum in Scotland. Their proposal would, allow an accomidation of visitors from Scotland, the UK and aborad. Their mission was to showcase the Scottish town that has influcned the world. They plan on doing this through restoring and reinvigorating the current museum. Similarly Levete has worked on designing a building for Maggie's cancer care charity in

Southampton Southampton () is a port city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. It is located approximately south-west of London and west of Portsmouth. The city forms part of the South Hampshire built-up area, which also covers Po ...

. Her additional projects around the world include, three hospital buildings in

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...

, the reimagine of the D’Ieteren Headquarters in Brussels; and the design of a prototype fusion plant for clean energy firm General Fusion at Culham.

Awards

In the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours Amanda Levete was appointed

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established ...

(CBE), for services to architecture. In 2018, Levete was awarded the Jane Drew Prize by the ''

Architects' Journal ''Architects' Journal'' is an architectural magazine published in London by Metropolis International. History The first edition was produced in 1895. Originally named ''The Builder's Journal and Architectural Record'', from 1906 to 1910 it was ...

'' and ''

Architectural Review ''The Architectural Review'' is a monthly international architectural magazine. It has been published in London since 1896. Its articles cover the built environment – which includes landscape, building design, interior design and urbanism ...

''. The Jane Drew Prize recognizes those elevate the profile of women in architecture through their commitment to design excellence. In 2019 she was elected an Honorary Fellow of the

American Institute of Architects The American Institute of Architects (AIA) is a professional organization for architects in the United States. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the AIA offers education, government advocacy, community redevelopment, and public outreach to su ...

. In 2021 she was elected to be a

Royal Academician The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...

. Levete has been awarded prestigious commissions such as hotel and mall development and

under the

Central Retail Corporation Central Group consists of a variety of diverse investments in various corporations in Thailand and abroad, including investments in retail, property development, brand management, hospitality, and food and beverage sectors, and in digital lifes ...

as well Levete has designed the media campus for News Corporation in East London

Personal life

Levete met the Czech architect

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. Since 2007 Levete has been married to

Ben Evans Benjamin Ross Evans (born 31 July 1975) is a former international Wales rugby union player. A prop, he has played for Ospreys, Cardiff Blues and Calvisano. He has played for Jersey and Moseley RFC. After spending time playing amateur rugby for ...

, director of the

London Design Festival London Design Festival is a citywide design event that takes place over nine days every September across London. It was conceived by Sir John Sorrell and Ben Evans CBE in 2003 and celebrated its 20th edition in September 2022. In an article by ...

. On 19 March 2017, Amanda Levete appeared as a castaway on the Radio 4 programme ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a "castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (usua ...

''.

Training

Career

Awards

Personal life

References

External links