MPavilion 2019—Glenn Murcutt
MPavilion 2019—Glenn Murcutt
MPavilion is an ongoing initiative of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, supported by City of Melbourne, State Government of Victoria, through Creative Victoria and ANZ. Every year the Naomi Milgrom Foundation commissions an outstanding architect to design a temporary pavilion for the Queen Victoria Gardens, in the centre of Melbourne’s Southbank Arts Precinct, which are then gifted to the state of Victoria.
In 2019 Pritzker Prize-winning Glenn Murcutt AO designed a characteristically thoughtful, climate-responsive MPavilion for the program’s longest-running season.
Internationally influential for his environmentally responsible designs with a distinctive Australian character, Murcutt’s MPavilion heralds a milestone in the architect’s fifty-year career as his first civic city design. The pavilion relays Murcutt’s longstanding interest in linear buildings that make efficient use of researched site and climatic conditions. Prioritising a view of the Yarra River and city skyline with weather-effective design elements, the MPavilion consists of a rectangular plan and round steel columns supporting wing-like trusses wrapped in translucent tensile membrane, shaping a buoyant white roof that will be lit from within at night. The result is a sleek and adaptable MPavilion resting on the landscape.
“Part of ‘The New Architecture’ taking place around the world MPavilion “offers a rare opportunity for the public to experience Murcutt’s striking brand of regionalism—with his seasonal structure open to its surroundings and sited to take full advantage of its environment.””
Karrie Jacobs for the Fall Preview 2019, The New York Times
The MPavilion 2019 season running from 14 November to 22 March, enjoyed an overwhelming public response.
Outcomes
The MPavilion 2019 season running from 14 November to 22 March, enjoyed an overwhelming public response. The program explored ‘Australian Design: Identity & Cultural Collaboration’, ‘Earth: A Place of Reconciliation, A Reconciliation of Place’, and ‘Knowledge: Shared Learning, Shared Power’.
Highlights: Celebrated ‘Australian Design’, with special commissions by the foundation including the MP19 Stacking Stool by Chris Connell, uniforms by Beci Orpin and The Social Studio, an Artist-in-Residency with Eugenia Lim and a living installation from Hattie x Honey Fingers. The Archibald Weekend presented by ANZ also took place with Victoria Lynn, Tony Costa, Lindy Lee, and Dr Michael Brand. MPavilion’s third annual BLAKitecture series—co-curated by Sarah Lynn Rees and Jack Mitchell, brought together Indigenous voices to share conversations about architecture and the future of built environments. Guests included Louis Anderson Mokak, Maddison Miller, Jeremy McLeod and Libby Porter.
Second Life: The pavilion has been gifted to the people of Victoria by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation and will be relocated to a permanent site in 2021.
100,000+
Visitors over 129 days
250+
Free events, including 100+ talks and public lectures, 28 music performances, 37 design meetings and gatherings, 29 workshops, 36 kids events, 42 health and wellbeing events, and 7 projects and installations.
500+
collaborators, including cultural institutions, architects, artists, musicians, dancers, choreographers, scientists, designers and more.
15
international guests, including Ludovic Laugier, curator of Antiquities at the Louvre Museum, Peggy Deamer, Professor of Architecture at Yale University and founder of The Architecture Lobby, and South African artist and visual activist Zanele Muholi.
CASE STUDY
What is Home
What is Home a one-week symposium on cooperative housing and a collaboration with the Royal College of Art, London took place with programme lead Dr Tarsha Finney and local housing experts Kerstin Thompson, Dr. Alysia Bennett, Andy Fergus and Katherine Sundermann, including offsite visits to Nightingale 2, Beverley Hills and Housing Choices Australia Ebsworth House. After a week of design work and discussion, students from RCA’s City Design MA Programme presented their findings on the future of housing in Australia. Recordings of these presentations can be found on the MPavilion Podcast.
CASE STUDY
M_Curators
MPavilion’s inaugural program supporting young and emerging arts curators, presented a special MRelay on the Climate Crisis invited local speakers Neil Morris, Jiri Lev, Jade Sarita Arnott and Charity Edwards among others. Presented by RACV, 14 experts from diverse backgrounds joined this mammoth conversation, all tackling the question; “what is the change you would most like to see taking place?” A recording of the discussion can be found on the MPavilion Podcast.
CASE STUDY
MKids
MKids included workshops with local organisations and creatives like Rock Academy Australia, The Sage Garden, Beci Orpin, Esther Olsson, Smiling Mind, Science Gallery and Fab9. A free educational program for primary and secondary students with creative, expert-led workshops focused on energy, the environment, design, craft and social wellbeing (reaching students at North Melbourne Primary School, Daylesford College, Victorian College Preston High, Eltham College, Methodist Ladies’ College, and EAL School at Lalor North College).
