MPavilion Book
MPavilion Book
MPavilion: Encounters with Design and Architecture marks the completion of six remarkable years and is a celebration of what MPavilion has collectively achieved.
Reflecting on the history and legacy of the MPavilion project from 2014 to 2019, MPavilion: Encounters with Design and Architecture captures the remarkable contribution of the first six MPavilion architects as well as the many collaborators who have contributed to MPavilion project so far. Through their help, MPavilion has become a model for promoting architecture, design and urban renewal.
“MPavilion is part of the general phenomenon around the world where people enjoy congregating in informal situations and contexts, debating and discussing contemporary ideas. It is part of the phenomenon of encouraging people to be participants rather than simply an audience.”
Nicholas Serota, Chair, Arts Council of England
‘Even with the most modest of architecture projects, you are changing the world.’
Rem Koolhaas, Founder, OMA
Outcomes
Published by Thames & Hudson, the richly detailed monograph comprises a series of six essays and explores how each architect addressed the design of MPavilion, expressed their distinct design philosophy and played a significant role in promoting contemporary architecture and its civic role.
MPavilion: Encounters with Architecture and Design documents each MPavilion’s design and programming, as well as reflecting a broader conversation about innovative public spaces, and the role of design in creating better cities and communities.
MPavilion’s social and cultural impact, its influence on community and role as a cultural laboratory has artfully been presented by the award winning Australian design establishment Studio Ongarato.
Foreword
Naomi Milgrom AC
Contributors and essays
Introduction by Stephen Todd
Stephen is a writer, editor and creative director with some 30 years experience in the design sector. Based in Sydney, Australia, he is the design editor of the Australian Financial Review newspaper and creative director of Sydney Design Week.
Open impressions by Julia Peyton-Jones DBE
(MPavilion 2014, Sean Godsell, Sean Godsell Architects)
Julia is senior global director at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac in London, Paris and Salzburg. Julia is formerly the director of London’s Serpentine Galleries, commissioning its annual Serpentine Gallery Pavilion. In 2014, Julia joined Naomi Milgrom AC and Sean Godsell to launch the MPavilion project in Melbourne.
The limits of architecture by Rory Hyde
(MPavilion 2015, Amanda Levete, AL_A)
Rory is curator of contemporary architecture and urbanism at the V&A Museum, design advocate for the Mayor of London, and adjunct senior research fellow at the University of Melbourne.
All hands on the present by Aric Chen
(MPavilion 2016, Bijoy Jain, Studio Mumbai)
Aric is curator at large for the M+ museum for visual culture in Hong Kong, and professor of practice at the College of Design & Innovation at Tongji University in Shanghai.
Theatrics, spectacles and the city by Ellie Stathaki
(MPavilion 2017, Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten, OMA.)
Ellie is architecture editor at Wallpaper* magazine. A trained architect, she studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London and after a brief time in architecture practice, she focused on architecture journalism.
A design for everyone by Caroline Roux
(MPavilion 2018, Carme Pinós, Estudio Carme Pinós.)
Caroline is a London-based arts writer and a regular contributor to The Financial Times, Wallpaper* and Telegraph Luxury, where she is the architecture expert.
A tablecloth under a wing by Françoise Fromonot
(MPavilion 2019, Glenn Murcutt AO)
Françoise is a Paris-based architect-academic and architecture critic. She is the author of Glenn Murcutt—Buildings + Projects, 1962-2003 (Thames & Hudson, 2003), which received the book prize of the Académie d’Architecture.
Editors
Alexandra Zafiriou
Robert Buckingham
Publisher
Kirsten Abbott — Thames & Hudson, Australia
Design and art direction
Studio Ongarato
Number of pages
Two-hundred and sixty
CASE STUDY
A second life photo essay by Simon Terrill
A photographic essay exploring the life of the first five MPavilions in their permanent locations—as civic spaces, backdrops and containers of ideas. Simon was commissioned to highlight the use of these spaces as they fold themselves into the life of the city.
An Australian artist based in London, Simon works with photography, sculpture, installation, drawing and video. His work investigates relations between architectural spaces and their received narratives, public and private identities, and the idea of ‘crowd theory’ as a tool to examine architecture, identity, community and a performance of self.
Container of Ideas
What happens inside and around each MPavilion is as significant as the structure itself. Conceived as a community asset as much as an architectural one, the creation of a vibrant four-month schedule of free events has become the heartbeat of the project.
Australian design legends Penelope Seidler AM and Mary Featherston AM have spoken at MPavilion, as well as Danish urbanist Jan Gehl, British architect David Adjaye, former curator of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Pamela Golbin, MOMA Director, Glenn Lowry and the director of Zaha Hadid Architects, Patrick Shumacher. Each participent was invited to use MPavilion as a platform to stimulate conversation and exchange ideas. As of 2017, the curated schedule has been augmented by a call for expressions of interest (EOI), which enables community groups to approach the organisers with ideas on how to occupy the space.
Unlike most cultural spaces which require extensive lead times for programming, the MPavilion is deliberately agile. MPavilion: Encounters with Architecture and Design showcases how each building needed to be not just intellectually engaging but rather purposefully engaged with.
Special Orders
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Title: MPavilion: Encounters with Design and Architecture
ISBN: 9781760760564
Published by: Thames & Hudson Australia in collaboration with the Naomi Milgrom Foundation.
Hardback 260 pages, 65 illustrations
Price AU$80.00/ NZ$90.00/ £39.95
*postage not included