MPavilion: Temporary Design with Enduring Impact
An event space, a meeting place and an invitation for creative exploration, since its inception two years ago, the annual MPavilion architecture commission has established itself as one of Melbourne’s most proliferate cultural hubs. Conceived by not-for-profit organisation The Naomi Milgrom Foundation, the initiative is described as ‘a step beyond the museum concept’, with each year marking the unveiling of a new temporary pavilion, designed by a leading international architect, and ceremoniously installed in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens – the beating heart of the city’s Southbank Arts Precinct.
From October through to February, the pavilion plays host to an ambitious program of free events, all interwoven with strong public interest, industry-related and educational threads. At the end of the four months, the structure is relocated to a more permanent home within Melbourne’s CBD, creating a lasting legacy for the city’s cultural and architectural landscape.
“I envisaged MPavilion as a unique architecture commission and design event for Melbourne,” says Milgrom. “Designed to be both responsive and a catalyst – a utopian cultural space and a container of ideas and discussion – the MPavilion program seeks to engage new audiences, foster public and private partnerships, and generate beneficial economic, social and educational outcomes for the Melbourne community.”
The 2016 Pavilion, designed by architect Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai sees structural engineering take a more traditional twist, using bamboo poles imported from India; featuring a roof elaborately constructed from sticks woven together over a four-month period by craftspeople in India, and accompanied by an intricate ‘tazia’ entrance tower used in Indian ceremonies. Spirituality, too, is one of the design’s key foundations, with the roof’s central opening and below golden well symbolic of the unity between the elements and their connection to place and community.
“I think for me it’s a space where the heart, mind and body are all connected,” explains Jain. “It’s a space for gathering, thought, and to reflect – one that is rooted in one’s own self. But, also, for the people of Melbourne, it creates a space where they can experience that. My hope for MPavilion is that it continues to act as a space to gather for all cultures and all at very complex levels, both immediate or far.”
Since opening in October 2016, the space has been used as a platform for hundreds of local and international artists, architects, designers, performers, academics, students and musicians, with projects set to feature in the January/February program spanning everything from collective DJ sessions and heartbeat synching installations, to virtual reality workshops and symposiums on nothingness. As a space, both in terms of design and drive, it has attracted local and international accolades, says Milgrom:
“Architecture is about experience and, ultimately, enhancing people’s lives. The response to Bijoy’s MPavilion has been, positively, one of renewed public and civic engagement with architecture and design.
“His approach to craft, sustainability, a collective construction process, and containment of life richly complements MPavilion’s ideas around collective creativity; bringing the industry together and supporting the exchange of ideas.
“My aim is that MPavilion continues to contribute to the ongoing international architecture debate and to create awareness of the role of design in city planning.”
And with each season continuing to draw in multiplying visitor numbers and increasing industry recognition, it seems that the conversation about MPavilion’s impact on both Melburnian communities and the global design scene at scale is only just getting started.
Pavilion 2016 is open until Saturday 18 February 2017.
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