Australia’s leading annual architecture commission and cultural laboratory, MPavilion, has been extended a further two seasons to 2020/21 and 2021/22.
The extension, announced in partnership with the City of Melbourne, signifies the enduring success of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation’s MPavilion initiative in engaging public-private collaborations and welcoming globally acclaimed design and cultural programming to Melbourne.
MPavilion is the Foundation’s centrepiece project, initiated in 2014 by the not-for-profit charitable organisation – which gifts each year’s MPavilion to the people of Victoria – as an innovative civic space and a way to connect Melburnians with architecture and design.
“In envisaging MPavilion in 2014, I primarily hoped the community would embrace the initiative and share in vital ideas about design and our cities,” said Naomi Milgrom AO, founder of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation. “I’m proud that MPavilion has become part of the cultural and physical landscape and I’m excited to partner with the City of Melbourne to spark collaborative actions and discussions into the future.”
Each year the Naomi Milgrom Foundation commissions an internationally renowned architect to design a pavilion for the Queen Victoria Gardens in the centre of Melbourne’s Southbank Arts Precinct. Over its four-month duration from October to February, MPavilion has become the venue for a program of over 1600 multidisciplinary events all offered and open to the public for free.
At the conclusion of the season, MPavilion is gifted to the community and relocated to a permanent home within the state of Victoria to be engaged in perpetuity:
- MPavilion 2017 – designed by Netherlands-based OMA / Rem Koolhaas & David Gianotten – located at Monash University Clayton Campus;
- MPavilion 2016 – designed by India’s Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai – located at Melbourne Zoo;
- MPavilion 2015 – designed by UK-based Amanda Levete of AL_A – located at Docklands Park, and
- MPavilion 2014 – designed by Australia’s Sean Godsell of Sean Godsell Architects – located at the Hellenic Museum.
“For the past four years MPavilion has celebrated and showcased the best of contemporary Australian and international architecture right in the heart of our city,” said City of Melbourne Lord Mayor Sally Capp. “The MPavilion program has been a major success, featuring collaboration between more than 1,000 designers, architects, cultural and educational institutions and winning eight national and international awards. We’re proud MPavilion continues to call Melbourne home and excited to see what amazing pieces of design will emerge in the next four years.”
MPavilion 2018 – designed by influential Barcelona-based architect Carme Pinós of Estudio Carme Pinós, is currently being built in the Queen Victoria Gardens, and will open to the public on Tuesday 9 October. The 2018/19 season of lively talks, performances, workshops, installations and interventions will be announced in September.
This year’s program distinctly responds to Carme Pinós’s interests in fostering inclusivity and community through design. For more information, visit: www.mpavilion.org for details.
Image: MPavilion 2015 by Amanda Levete of AL_A – photo by John Gollings