Amanda Levete, a British rising-woman architect, spoken to BBC's radio programme Desert Island Discs, giving a sincere details about her architectural career and AL_A's latest ventures as well as her personal life.

A rising-star Amanda Levete talked to Kirsty Young from Desert Island Discs and discussed the effective role of public spaces, cultural impacts on public spaces, the V&A's new exhibition gallery (which opens on June 30) and her personal life.

In a 45-min radio track, a guest is asked to choose the eight records, a book and a luxury item that they would want if they were stranded on a desert island. Desert Island Discs was created by Roy Plomley in 1942 and hosted several leading figures from all over the world including Zaha Hadid (in 2016), Sir Kenneth Grange (in 2017), novelist and critic Zadie Smith (in 2013), designer Anya Hindmarch (in 2012).

Amanda Levete 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.

Top image: Amanda Levete. Image © Matt Holyoaks

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