Future Systems

The London Future Systems firm was founded in 1979 by Jan Kaplicky, born in Czechoslovakia in 1937 and graduated from the College of Applied Arts and Architecture in Prague in 1962. From 1968 Kaplicky worked in London with Denys Lasdun, Piano & Rogers, Spencer & Webster and Norman Foster. Amanda Levete was born at Bridgend, Britain, in 1955, and qualified at the Architectural Association in London in 1982. After professional practice with Alsop & Lyall, yrm Architects and Richard Rogers & Partners, in 1989, she joined Future Systems. They work in many parts of the world on architectural projects, urban furniture, interiors, industrial design and visual communication. Their work is distinctively innovative in its handling of image and its functional and technological research. Their major projects and completed works include: the Visitors’ Centre at Stonehenge, England (1992); Hauer-King House in London (1994); the Natwest Media Centre at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London (1994-99), which won the riba Stirling Prize (2000), the British Construction Award (1999) and the Aluminium Immagination Award (1999); the floating footbridge linking Canary Wharf and the West India Quay in London (1994-99); the installations for the showrooms of the international fashion chain Comme des Garçons in New York, Tokyo and Paris. Jan Kaplicky died in 2009..