The architect tries to draw a perspective from other disciplines and not just from architecture. She went forward to use the same style to design her weekend house in Hudson and incorporated these shapes in the design of outdoor benches in Miami Beach, and a painted plywood pavilion named “Zoid” at Art Omi, near Ghent.Īlthough mostly modernist, she acknowledges the pitfalls of pinning her work mainly to modernism and works with openness, voids, and fluidity. She pushes her bounds to the maximum extent and breaks the rules of a system she creates for herself.īetts once contributed hollow trapezoids made of concrete that could be assembled in various ways forming different shapes, for an exhibition “Unpacking the Cube” at the Chamber gallery in Chelsea. The artist finds it amusing that a simple shape can take on a life of its own when a mere variable is changed a scale or an angle while its planimetric organization is kept constant. Flexible spaces give people the maximum agency over their surroundings, she says. She believes that art and architecture are tools of revolution and social change, by embracing paradoxes and contradictions. The architect is fearless in her approach. Zoid, LEVENBETTS_© Square House, LEVENBETTS_© Style “Who gets access to what?” is a preliminary question that she always keeps in mind. The architect tries to convey a message that is equitable and welcoming through her designs. Ranging from the scale of an entire city to a small installation, the space is defined and produced with a certain predetermined impact. She aims to tear down inequality and injustices through architecture as architecture itself is implicated in injustices. Betts gives utmost importance to the relationship that her buildings have with their sites. She is fascinated with multidimensionality and the generosity of free, open public spaces and tries to incorporate them in her projects. She strives to instill a sense of permanence in impermanent spaces. IdeologyĮach one of her projects is designed to be an integral part of the local community. Her ideas scale much more than just a single idea, they are never represented in a single style and never serve a single purpose. Rather than just incorporating reading, research, and books in the space, she designed the spaces to incorporate community facilities and additional social programs, inviting a larger user group. The architect studies the transformation of the functions and the purposes of a building which can be seen in the project “Brooklyn Heights Interim Library”, based in New York City. Stella Betts believes that there can never be a single way of perceiving things there are at least 13 ways to perceive a design, 13 ways of scaling, 13 ways of sourcing materials, 13 different methods of doing things, 13 ways of perceiving a site,13 ways of drawing a line and 13 ways of answering a question in an interview. Brooklyn Heights Interim Library detail of the “book worm” wall that incorporates a poem by Walt Whitman titled Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, 1856_©Gregg Richards ) Philosophy The studio has designed many buildings and written many books including “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a House” – A feature of 13 residences and 13 topics related to domestic spaces that is all set to be published in the Fall of 2021. LEVENBETTSĪ brainchild of Stella Betts and David Leven, LEVENBETTS within the first ten years of establishment has been notably published in a monograph called Pattern Recognition that highlights the first ten years of the firm’s practice. The architect currently serves on the board of the Architectural League of New York. She then co-founded her organization ‘LEVENBETTS’ along with David Leven and bagged various fellowships and awards including Architectural League of New York for the Emerging Voices, Architectural Record’s Design Vanguard, and Young Architects Forum. Some of the prestigious universities she has taught at include Parsons School for Design, Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, The Cooper Union, and Syracuse University School of Architecture.
She stepped into the architecture industry after completing her Master of Architecture from Harvard GSD.
Stella Betts started her journey in architecture at Connecticut College where she received her Bachelor of Arts degree. Square House by Leven Betts_©Vietnam Architecture Magazine Stella Betts and David Leven_©Photograph by Michael Moran Life
She has served in many architectural juries, taught at various universities, and is a member of the Board of the Architectural League of New York. Her domain of design mainly includes public spaces, housing, residences, furniture, and exhibitions. She is well recognized internationally, through awards, publications, and exhibitions. An award-winning architect from New York City and a founding partner at LEVENBETTS, Stella Betts has made a mark on the architectural industry with her designs at a range of scales.
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