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Amanda Levete Architects: The Latest Architecture and News

Shortlist Announced for Competition to Redesign the Eiffel Tower Visitor Experience

Amanda Levete is among one of four teams to be shortlisted for a competition to reimagine the visitor experience for the famous Eiffel Tower in Paris. The four teams, chosen from 42 entries, will be tasked with rethinking the ways in which people discover and interact with the tower, working in collaboration with the City of Paris government.

Titled “Discover, Approach, Visit,” the competition site covers 54 hectares of land on both sides of the River Seine, with the Eiffel Tower site located at the center. In preparation for Paris’ hosting of the 2024 Olympic Games, the competition asks teams to spend 10 months exploring how to enhance the visitor experience at the base of the tower, strengthen existing connections across the site, reconfigure public transport routes.

Amanda Levete Architects Unveil Oxford University Addition

London-based AL_A, spearheaded by Amanda Levete, have revealed their design for two new buildings at the Wadham College site of the historic Oxford University in England. The Dr. Lee Shau Kee Building and William Doo Undergraduate Centre will provide much-needed space for undergraduate services to support the University's access programs as well as new gathering places for the student body. The firm has been developing the expansion since securing the project after an invited design competition in the summer of 2016.

Hadid and O’Donnell + Tuomey Among City of Westminster's Shortlist for People's Choice Awards

The City of Westminster, England has announced the shortlist for its first People’s Choice Award for the city’s best building from the past decade.

In an effort to engage the public in a debate about what makes a great building, the Westminster City Council asked a panel of architects, developers, councilors, and planners to shortlist 12 designs to be voted on by people who live and work in the city, as well as by visitors. Buildings for the shortlist were chosen based on its use of materials, purpose, and impact on the surrounding space.

"Brilliant architectural design should be recognized for all the fantastic benefits it can have in terms of health and wellbeing, sustainability, and the simple pleasure we all take from having such striking buildings lining our routes home, to shop and to work," said Cllr Robert Davis MBE DL, Deputy Leader of Westminster City Council. "The best people to ask about the impact these buildings have are those who see them day in, day out, and so I am delighted that we have been able to engage the public in a debate about what makes a great building and to promote design excellence."

The 12 shortlisted projects for the Westminster People’s Choice Awards are:

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Watch AL_A’s MAAT Museum in Lisbon Shimmer in this 4K Timelapse Video

Located along banks of the Tagus in the Lisbon neighborhood of Belém, AL_A's recently completed Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology (MAAT) has brightened up the Lisbon waterfront with its sleek form and glimmering materiality since its opening last October. These qualities have now been captured in a 4K timelapse video by photographer and filmmaker Alejandro Villanueva. The video shows how the building’s presence transforms throughout the day, as the sun reflects off of its unique ceramic facade.

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AL_A Wins Planning for Southampton Maggie's Center

UPDATE: AL_A has won planning permission for their Southampton Maggie's Center design. According to a report by the Architects' Journal, the 420 square-meter "disappearing" building will be the charity's 19th center. It is set to open in 2017.

Amanda Levete Architects (AL_A) has submitted plans for a new Maggie's Center in the English coastal city of Southampton. Sited at the Southampton General Hospital, the proposed center will provide free practical, emotional and social support for people with cancer and their family and friends. The new building aims to provide a warm and welcoming sanctuary within the built-up hospital environment.

"Bringing a bit of magic to the place, the building emerges from this wild naturalistic landscape with an almost ethereal clarity," described AL_A. "Subtle, understated and imbued with light, it is designed to lift the weight from the shoulders of all who visit and work there."

Chipperfield and Herzog & de Meuron Among 6 Teams Shortlisted for LSE's Paul Marshall Building

The London School of Economics (LSE), working alongside the RIBA, has announced six teams in the running to design their latest high-profile building project: the £100 million redevelopment of 44 Lincoln's Inn Fields, which once complete will be known as the Paul Marshall Building. As the third of the LSE's recent run of major campus transformations, the Paul Marshall Building will follow in the footsteps of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners' “Center Building Redevelopment” which received planning permission earlier this year and O'Donnell + Tuomey's highly-acclaimed Saw Swee Hock Student Centre, which was shortlisted for the 2014 Stirling Prize. Read on to see the full shortlist.

Amanda Levete to Design Melbourne's Second Annual MPavilion

British architect Amanda Levete of London-based studio AL_A has been selected to design Melbourne's second annual MPavilion. The temporary structure will be used to house talks, workshops, performances and installations in the "downtown oasis" of Queen Victoria Gardens starting this October.

"I’ve visited Australia three times in the past six years and without doubt Melbourne is my favorite city," said Levete, commenting on her commission. "It’s people that make a city creative – and that’s why I love Melbourne. The brief from the Naomi Milgrom Foundation is a great opportunity to design a structure that responds to its climate and landscape. I’m interested in exploiting the temporary nature of the pavilion form to produce a design that speaks in response to the weather."

4 Teams Shortlisted In Nine Elms Bridge Competition

Four teams including Hopkins Architects, Amanda Levete's practice AL_A and two separate teams from Ove Arup & Partners have been shortlisted in the competition to design a new bridge in London spanning the Thames from Nine Elms to Westminster. The competition for the £40 million bridge, part of the dramatic new developments at Nine Elms and Battersea, made headlines last month when all 74 entrants were released to the public.

Read on after the break to see the entries from all four teams

Fast Company Names Top 10 Most Innovative Practices in Architecture

Fast Company has announced who they believe to be the most innovative practices in architecture for 2014. Topping this list is New York’s SHoP Architects who has gone from “boutique to big commissions in only a few years.” See who made the list after the break and let us know who you believe is the world’s most innovative firms in the comment section below.

British Architects Seek Infrastructure Opportunities in Brazil

Led by UK housing minister Mark Prisk, architects from five high-profile British practices - Haworth Tompkins, Foster & Partners, Amanda Levete Architects, Avanti Architects and de Matos Ryan - have embarked on a week-long visit to Brazil in search of major infrastructure opportunities for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games. The trip is part of the UKBrasil Season, a six-month series of dynamic and engaging projects designed to showcase the best of British business, culture, science and innovation in Brazil and become the largest post-Olympic legacy project in the world.

Mark Prisk stated: “Brazilian companies in these cities are actively looking for fast-track construction systems, innovative building materials and low carbon solutions to meet current and future demand, not only in preparation for hosting the 2014 FIFA World Cup and 2016 Olympic Games but also to compete in the country’s many major infrastructure projects.

More after the break...