Amanda Levete
CommentRulers were made for…
You can’t measure the value of design with any kind of measuring stick - and anyone who suggests you can deserves a rap on the knuckles
CommentWhy we should train architects on the job
Higher education is going to become increasingly inaccessible, so why don’t we create ways of training while working
CommentSecond best is no good at all: impressions from the Labour party conference
Fresh from the Labour conference, Amanda Levete muses on the pointlessness of second place, the deviousness of committees and the role of a great leader in making great buildings
CommentDonkey work and urban planning
A Kenyan island with an unusual freight-transportation system has inspired Amanda Levete to think again about designing for cities without cars
CommentHow does the state imagine?
The next decade is going to reinterpret, reorganise and abolish much of our familiar world, so we’ll need creative thinking from government. Which could be a problem
CommentUp for the cup
Goal celebrations are brilliant expressions of national identity (but not you, Clint Dempsey). How does architecture reflect where a nation has come from and where it’s going, asks Amanda Levete
CommentChoice in an age of uncertainty
These days it seems nothing can be taken for granted, whether its simple travel plans or the fact that the Lib Dems are bound to come third. Which can be a good thing
CommentAmanda Levete: What Japan can teach us
Or, as the atlases have it, Japan: a country that endlessly contradicts itself, but does so with such artistry that it hardly matters. But what can it teach us
CommentAmanda Levete: why architects know best
Give Britain’s best architects the final say in what gets built. Amanda Levete explains why this modest proposal is neither elitist, utopian, nor politically impossible
CommentThey know how to use the sky box
That’s just one of the benefits of having children. But the struggle to combine work and reproduction is rewarding, exhausting and different for everybody
CommentThe academy in peril
If you find yourself with a spare hour in Piccadilly, go and see Anish Kapoor at the RA: it’s disturbing, even violent, but it has a lot to say about how art fits into buildings
CommentWhere are we now? How architecture is understood and consumed
The way architecture is produced, consumed and understood in the 21st century has been transformed – for better and worse – by digital technology
CommentDining and designing
Buildings are consumed by the eye in the same way that food is consumed by the organs of digestion. And in both cases, the important thing is that they’re tasty
CommentWe can't afford cheap and nasty
The recession is turning us, and our politicians, into mean, short-sighted people. And this is exactly the right way to make sure it lasts a long, long time
CommentAustralia's grand opera house
Sydney is finally going to restore Jørn Utzon’s awesome opera house to his original design – but there is a big price to pay
CommentJan and me: Amanda Levete on Jan Kaplicky
Jan Kaplicky, who died in January, was a visionary architect whose creativity drove him to test the bounds of the possible, says his former wife and design partner
FeaturesNothing could be better
Empty sites and redundant buildings can be colonised for all kinds of creative purposes, says Amanda Levete. It just needs a little imagination on the part of government to get them going
CommentA question of charisma
Some regenerated areas become fizzing centres of creative energy whereas others are, well, a bit dull. But what is it that makes the difference? Amanda Levete has a theory …
CommentThe uses of adversity
The Great Depression brought destitution to millions. It also transformed politics and society and produced great architecture. Amanda Levete asks: could the present downturn do the same?
CommentDarwin and design
A week in the Pacific archipelago that inspired the theory of evolution also inspires thoughts about survival and extinction in the architectural world