Amanda Levete, British architect and founding principal of London-based AL_A, is the winner of the 2018 Jane Drew Prize celebrating female architectural designers who “through their work and commitment to design excellence, [have] raised the profile of women in architecture.” Launched in 1998, the prize is organized by The Architectural Review and The Architects’ Journal.
A graduate of the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, Levete co-founded the firm Powis & Levete for which she was nominated to the Royal Institute of British Architects’ (RIBA’s) “40 Under 40” exhibition in 1985. From 1989 to 2008, Levete partnered with then-husband Jan Kaplický in their architectural and design practice Future Systems. Their design for the Lord’s Media Centre won RIBA’s 1999 Stirling Prize.
Levete founded AL_A in 2009 and is now joined by Ho-Yin Ng, Maximiliano Arrocet, and Alice Dietsch as directors. Last year, the firm completed a new entrance and exhibition hall for the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (at a cost of approximately $76.4 million). AL_A is currently renovating the Galeries Lafayette in Paris.
Courtesy Hufton + Crow
The new courtyard of the Victoria & Albert museum features 11,000 porcelain tiles, linear skylights into the underground gallery space, and a large sculpture.
“Amanda Levete is an architect whose career has been notable at several points, but whose independent practice has blossomed internationally, and whose independent voice has generated welcome debate and reform,” said Paul Finch, editorial director of both The Architectural Review and The Architects’ Journal.
Previous winners of the prize include Denise Scott Brown, Hon. FAIA, Odile Decq, and the late Zaha Hadid.
