British architect Amanda Levete has won the 2018 AJ/AR Jane Drew Prize, which celebrates individuals who have raised the profile of women in architecture through their work / Matt Holyoaks

British architect Amanda Levete has won the 2018 AJ/AR Jane Drew Prize, which celebrates individuals who have raised the profile of women in architecture through their work.

Levete – who won the 1999 RIBA Stirling Prize for the Lord’s Media Centre, alongside her then-husband and business partner Jan Kaplický – is the founder of AL_A, a studio who have received acclaim for public projects such as Lisbon’s Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology; the V&A Museum’s Exhibition Road expansion; and the Central Embassy tower in Bangkok.

She is the seventh recipient of a prestigious prize that has been awarded to the likes of Denise Scott Brown, Zaha Hadid, Eva Jirnica, Odile Decq and Grafton Architects founders Shelley McNamara and Yvonne Farrell.

The Jane Drew Prize is presented by the Women in Architecture Awards in association with the Architects Journal (AJ) and the Architectural Review (AR). Its stated mission is “to look to inspire change in the architectural profession by celebrating great design by women architects from around the world and promoting role models for young women in practice”.

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.”

Meanwhile, the co-founder of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), artist Madelon Vriesendorp, has been awarded the 2018 Ada Louise Huxtable Prize, which celebrates women working in the wider industry “who have made a significant contribution to architecture and the built environment.”

In a varied career since stepping away from architecture, Vriesendorp has created art and illustrations, designed costumes, curated exhibitions and penned short stories.

Finch 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.”

The previous recipients of the accolade are sculptor Rachel Whiteread, former Serpentine Galleries director Julia Peyton-Jones and architectural patron Jane Priestman.

Amanda Levete's mammoth V&A Exhibition Road expansion ready to open

AL_A complete striking Central Embassy tower in Bangkok, featuring Yabu Pushelberg's Park Hyatt hotel

AL_A design stackable football pitches to revive fading communities

Amanda Levete's sparkling art museum brings new cultural heart to Lisbon

Amanda Levete creates weather-responsive forest in the city for Melbourne’s 2015 MPavilion

FEATURE: CLAD people – Amanda Levete