Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/193668
Amanda LEVETE London architect Amanda Levete started her career in the office of Richard Rogers, then joined the highly influential firm Future Systems with her late ex-husband, Jan Kaplický, where she had a successful 20-year run designing such vanguard-defining projects as the futuristic media center at Lord's Cricket Ground in London and a biomorphic, metal-studded outpost of Selfridges in Birmingham. She now heads the 60-person firm Amanda Levete Architects (AL_A), which she started nearly five years ago after a split with Kaplický, initially with a staff of less than 20. Rigor, ambition and tenacity are guiding tenets for Levete, 57. It's especially evident in the exhaustive research that goes into every project. "Our approach to design is far more anthropological than people would expect," she says. "Research is the backbone that underpins everything we do. It enables us to recognize and harness the creativity and expertise of those from other disciplines." A good example is her exploration of ceramics for AL_A's expansion of the Victoria and Albert Museum, where a new courtyard entrance along Exhibition Road will sit atop a 16,000-square-foot gallery. Riffing on the marriage of art and industry inherent in the museum's DNA—and more literally on the historic tile and mosaic floors found throughout the august V&A (as well as the ceramics in its peerless collections)—Levete's investigation led to load-bearing ceramic elements that are both structural and decorative. In Lisbon, a cultural center AL_A is designing for the foundation arm of the power company Energias de Portugal, on the banks of the Tagus river, will also feature structural tiles. "There's a huge amount happening in the ceramics industry that's high-tech and scientifically driven, for use in aeronautical and medical applications. We're merging that with a more artisanal understanding," explains Levete. These and other projects also balance technological innovation with making spaces that engage people and the city in new, dynamic ways. Levete's work continues to push limits and break barriers, in keeping with her mission: "We want to change the game." ala.uk.com 96 CULTURED PHOTO BY PETER GUENZEL (LEVETE), COURTESY OF AMANDA LEVETE ARCHITECTS (CENTRAL EMBASSY) Amanda Levete's design for Central Embassy, a major retail and hotel complex in central Bangkok