Main content

Amanda Levete

Amanda Levete, architect, is interviewed by Kirsty Young for Desert Island Discs.

Kirsty Young's castaway this week is the architect Amanda Levete. She won the Stirling prize in 1998 for the Media Centre at Lord's Cricket Ground which she designed with then husband, the late Jan Kaplicky. Later this year the Victoria and Albert Museum in London will open her extension, featuring a new entrance, courtyard and gallery.

Brought up in Richmond, the oldest of three children, she showed her independent spirit early on, and left school at 16. She discovered architecture while on a Foundation year at art school and was offered a place at the Architectural Association, even though her portfolio didn't feature a single drawing of a building.

Since setting up her own practice in 2009, her creative endeavours have included the Museum of Art, Architecture & Technology (MAAT) in Lisbon, a retail and hotel complex in Bangkok, and the MPavilion Queen Victoria Gardens in Melbourne. In 2016 her practice won competitions to transform the Galleries Lafayette building in Paris and create a new mosque in Abu Dhabi. She has also designed furniture, stackable football pitches and set up a pop-up restaurant serving nothing but tinned fish.

Producer: Cathy Drysdale.

Available now

37 minutes

Last on

Fri 24 Mar 2017 09:00

Music Played

  • Françoise Hardy

    Tous Les Garcons Et Les Filles

    • Francoise Hardy: Les Essentiels.
    • Sony.
  • Heitor Villa‐Lobos

    Bachianas Brasileiras no. 5

    Performer: Victoria de los Ángeles. Performer: Orchestre national de France. Conductor: Heitor Villa‐Lobos.
    • Villa Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras.
    • EMI Classics.
  • James Brown

    Get Up (I Feel Like Being A) Sex Machine

    • Sex Machine: The Very Best of James Brown.
    • Sony.
  • Pavel Bobek

    Muj rodný dum

    • The Best of Pavel Bobek.
    • Supraphon.
  • Westlife

    Uptown girl

    • World of Our Own.
    • Sony.
  • Teófilo Chantre

    Bondade E Maldade

    Performer: Cesária Évora.
    • Sao vicente De Longe.
    • Lusafrica.
    • 74321 835572.
    • 13.
  • Charles Gounod/Bach

    Ave Maria

    Performer: Lesley Garrett.
    • The Soprano’s Greatest Hits.
    • Universal.
  • CASTAWAY'S FAVOURITE

    • Bach

      Suite No.1 in G Major, BWV 1007 Prélude

      Performer: Yo‐Yo Ma.
      • the Essential Yo-Yo Ma.
      • Sony Classical.
  • BOOK CHOICE

    Museum without Walls by André Malraux

  • LUXURY ITEM

    Lifetime supply of freshly laundered linen napkins

Credits

Role Contributor
Presenter Kirsty Young
Interviewed Guest Amanda Levete
Producer Cathy Drysdale

Broadcasts

  • Sun 19 Mar 2017 11:15
  • Fri 24 Mar 2017 09:00

Featured in...

The Desert Island Discs podcast

The Desert Island Discs podcast

Subscribe or download individual episodes.

Listen to over 2,000 programmes

Click above to browse castaways, from 1942 to today.

Articles

Read the surprising things we've learned about some stand-out castaways.

Podcast