Amanda Jane Levete CBE (Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) is a Stirling Prize-winning British architect and principal of AL_A.
A graduate of Hammersmith School of Art and the Architectural Association, Amanda trained and spent much of her early career at the Richard Rogers Partnership. She was nominated for The Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA) 40 Under 40 exhibition when she was a co-founder of Powis & Levete.
After joining Future Systems – one of the UK’s most innovative practices – as a partner in 1989, Amanda became known for giving life to the company’s organic and conceptual designs.
“The design of buildings embodies so much of what it means to be human,” she told Wallpaper. “It’s about identity, national identity, social issues, political issues. It’s deeply creative, very technical, and very conceptual. As an artist you’re on your own, on a personal quest, whereas architecture is collaborative; you have to take on board other people’s views, maybe even take inspiration from them. It’s a discipline that has a built in resistance and I respond well to that; I like the challenge.”
In 2009, Levete formed AL_A (formerly Amanda Levete Architecture), and two years later, the practice won the international competition to design a new entrance, courtyard and gallery for London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, which opened in 2017. Her celebrated buildings can be seen throughout the world in countries such as the UK, Portugal, Thailand and Australia.
In 2018, she won the Jane Drew Prize, an annual lifetime achievement award for an architect who has furthered the progress of women in the industry. In 2017, she was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) for services to architecture in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list.
Tags: architecture
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