Welcome to our new website

Welcome to AL_A’s new website.

Developed with Farrow and Addedlovely, it will deliver a dynamic, content-rich online experience, giving news and opinions about AL_A, our people and our projects.

We encourage you to follow us to learn more!

A little about us:

AL_A is an award-winning architecture and design studio. It was founded in 2009 by Amanda Levete and grew out of Future Systems, a practice widely regarded as laying down the agenda for architecture in the twenty-first century, with works including the Stirling Prize-winning Media Centre at Lord’s Cricket Ground and the Selfridges department store, Birmingham. The former saw the construction of the world’s first all-aluminium semi-monocoque building, fabricated by boatbuilders at the home of English cricket, while the latter exceeded the developer’s ambition, not only designing a state of the art department store but also creating an architectural landmark for Birmingham so that the building itself would become a genuine catalyst for urban regeneration.

Led by Amanda Levete, Ho-Yin Ng, Maximiliano Arrocet and Alice Dietsch, AL_A has refined an intuitive and strategic approach to design that has radicalised clients and briefs, and led to a diverse range of concepts for cultural, retail and commercial schemes around the world. The practice’s creative relationship with a client is defined by a mutual respect as well as being reciprocally demanding: AL_A challenge assumptions and presuppositions, and expect to be challenged in return.

Collaboration amplifies the potential of projects and AL_A are natural collaborators. Four directors representing three continents work on all projects bringing a richness of possibility. This spirit of collaboration runs across the office and beyond it to the expertise and experience offered by a sophisticated network of trusted specialists.

Research underpins everything that AL_A do: research to explore the history, context, circumstance, sustainability and conceptual viability of each project, research into technical possibility and constraints, materials, structures and techniques. Carrying out research with the conviction and tenacity to see it through, maximising the potential of every aspect, is fundamental.

Recent commissions include the highly anticipated expansion of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, Central Embassy, a 1.5 million sq ft mixed-use development in Bangkok on the former grounds of the British embassy, a new centre for the cancer care charity Maggie’s, a 13-hectare media campus for Sky, and a cultural centre in Lisbon commissioned by EDP, one of the world’s foremost energy companies.

Our current self-generated projects include tincan, a six month restaurant project in London’s Soho, serving the best tinned seafood in the world, along with tablO, an open source tool for a product to aid designers who use tablets, and a series of stackable football pitches that respond to London’s urban conditions and lack of sports facilities.

Each and every AL_A project gives an insight into our way of thinking, combining a strategic and intuitive approach with an attention to detail.

To find out further details about us and our projects, please download our Brochure.