Around The Corner
Amanda Levete
This shockingly bright fibreglass console is the most immediately visually referenced piece in the collection. Finished in a glossy, electric, acid lime green, it is fixed on two sides and creates a shelf that folds into itself to create a vessel. The console casts shadow on itself, accentuating its visual complexity.
The West bench looks like an elegant calligraphic scrawl magnified into a three dimensional form and explores the relationship between solid and void. It is one continuous line that has been twisted, folded exaggerated and reduced so as to express the forces on the seat. The piece appears to be spontaneous but is the result of a complex design process. It is invisibly fixed to one side of the corner and gently touches the other side, where it comes to rest on the floor. It is made of high quality, laminated wood, like the deck of a yacht. The grain of the wood is revealed as it stretches, accentuating the curvature of the form.
A recipient of the Royal Institute of British Architects’ Stirling Prize, one of the UK’s highest architectural honours, her recent commissions include the celebrated expansion of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and a 1.5 million square foot luxury shopping mall and hotel in Bangkok. Levete trained at the Architectural Association and worked for the British architect Richard Rogers before joining Future Systems as a partner in 1989, where she realised groundbreaking buildings including the Media Centre at Lord’s Cricket Ground and Selfridges department store in Birmingham. Amanda is a trustee of leading social innovation centre The Young Foundation and has served as a trustee of influential arts organisation Artangel for over a decade. She is a regular radio and TV broadcaster, writes for a number of publications, including the New Statesman and Prospect, and lectures worldwide.
