This event can be enjoyed in person at the Benjamin West Lecture Theatre, or via a digital livestream.

In a world where our relationship with nature is viewed as increasingly important, architecture has the power to drive change. Amanda Levete RA has remained committed to this through many of AL_A’s projects. For example, her reimagination of the area surrounding the Eiffel Tower uses water as the literal and metaphorical thread that stitches the diverse site together and brings nature back into the city.

AL_A’s Maggie’s cancer care centre, completed in Southampton in 2021, envisions a piece of garden transported from the New Forest into the midst of the hospital’s concrete surroundings. The four walls of the centre then cut through the garden and make the building itself part of the landscape.

Exhibited at the Summer Exhibition 2022, Levete’s design for a demonstration plant for energy firm General Fusion will show the potential of fusion to solve the energy problems of the world, all while keeping sustainability and wellbeing at its centre.

The lecture will be an opportunity to hear about AL_A’s most recent project, The Belgrade Philharmonic Concert Hall, which the practice won in competition this year. The biggest cultural investment in the region for decades, the new hall will be an expression of harmony between building and landscape, between east and west, between old and new. The re-wilding of Usce Park as a setting for the hall will emphasise the need to make cities cleaner, greener and more beautiful.