After studying at the Architectural Association and working at the offices of Will Alsop and Richard Rogers, in 1989 Amanda Levete joined Jan Kaplicky in Future Systems as a partner. The buildings they have since realised have been award winning and seminal in their influence, including the Hauer King House, the Floating Bridge in the Docklands, the media centre at Lord’s Cricket grounds, which received the Stirling prize in 1999, and the extraordinary building for Selfridges in Birmingham.

‘The romance of Venice, the light from the sun, the heat from the furnaces and sweating bodies was a heady mix which made for a highly charged atmosphere. This and beginning to feel the nature of molten glass resulted in more elemental forms driven by the physicality of making. For me the Salviati experience, working with some of the most skilled artisans in the world was intoxicating and a great privilege.

The starting point of my design was a form that has been a recurring motif in many of our projects – in plan, as a 3 dimensional form or even in section, the bean form is a part of our aesthetic language. I began with a series of small white plasticine models cut to a template of a hand drawn bean shape distorted to create a series of fluid forms.’