Jane Drew Prize to Amanda Levete

The annual prize recognizes "an architectural designer who, through their work and commitment to design excellence, has raised the profile of women in architecture." Levete, who ran Future Systems with her then-husband Jan Kaplický, founded her eponymous firm in 2009.

Recently she completed V&A Exhibition Road Quarter in London, the largest project for the Victoria & Albert Museum in more than a century. In 2015 she was selected for the MPavilion in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens, which was moved to a permanent location in the city's Docklands City Park the following year. Her most high-profile commission to date is MAAT – Museum for Art, Architecture and Technology, which opened to the public in Lisbon in January 2017.
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Paul Finch, editorial director of the AJ and AR said: "Amanda Levete is an architect whose career has been notable at several points, but whose independent practice has blossomed internationally, and whose independent voice has generated welcome debate and reform."

Previous recipients of the Jane Drew Prize include Denise Scott Brown (2017), Odile Decq (2016), Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara of Grafton Architects (2015), Kathryn Findlay (2014) and Eva Jiřičná (2013).

At the same time as the Jane Drew Prize, AJ/AR named Dutch artist Madelon Vriesendorp as winner of the 2018 Ada Louise Huxtable Prize, which "recognizes individuals working in the wider architectural industry who have made a significant contribution to architecture and the built environment."

Paul Finch, again, said: "Madelon Vriesendorp is a rarity: a true artist who has a deep understanding of architecture and its protocols, and whose observant and witty work has provided a thoughtful visual counterpoint to the world of bricks and mortar."