MPavilion - Encounters With Design and Architecture

MPavilion is an annual architectural commission designed by a leading international architect for the Queen Victoria Gardens in Melbourne, Australia. Inspired by the Serpentine Pavilion in London, the MPavilion project was established in 2014 by Naomi Milgrom AO, one of Australia's foremost cultural visionaries and philanthropists. It is, in the words of Professor Alan Pert, Director of Melbourne School of Design at the University of Melbourne, a 'cultural laboratory ... an educational environment beyond the institution, a museum without a collection.'

Centred around the six pavilion projects to date, this book reflects on MPavilion's ongoing architectural and cultural impact. Incorporating architectural drawings, renders, models and design statements, as well as eight essays by leading design writers and photographs documenting each project and the activities that it inspired, it considers how each architect responds to or highlights issues relevant to contemporary design, architecture and community building. In doing so, MPavilion positions their collective endeavour as a global model for cultural activation, design leadership, place-making, community building, architectural tourism, philanthropy and public/private partnerships. This is at once the perfect introduction to and critical assessment of the MPavilion project.

Table of Contents

Contents * Foreword by Naomi Milgrom * Introduction by Stephen Todd * Sean Godsell, Sean Godsell Architects. Essay: Open Impressions by Julia Peyton-Jones * Amanda Levete, ALA. Essay: The Limits of Architecture by Rory Hyde * Bijoy Jain, Studio Mumbai. Essay: All Hands on the Present by Aric Chen * Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten, OMA. Essay: Theatrics, Spectacle and the City * Ellie Stathaki and Carme Pinos, Estudio Carme Pinos. Essay: A Design for Everyone by Caroline Roux * Glenn Murcutt. Essay: A Tablecloth Under a Wing by Francoise Fromonot