MPavilion 2019, designed by Glenn Murcutt, opened to public in the Queen Victoria Gardens, Melbourne. MPavilion 2019 is the sixth in an ongoing series of annual architect-designed summer pavilions for Melbourne. Inspired by Murcutt's career, MPavilion this year celebrates Australian design and identity with a free four-month season of events through March 22, 2020.
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. "Glenn's fifty-year practice has inspired a new movement in thinking about climate-responsive design," stated Naomi Milgrom AO, chair of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation. "His MPavilion refines the Australian characteristics we've all come to love about his buildings, and provokes a conversation about how Australian design can lead a growing international conversation about the future of cities."
MPavilion 2019 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.
"I felt a crisp white building that at night could be lit from within its roof-like a lantern in the Queen Victoria Gardens, giving the pavilion a feeling of lightness-would sit comfortably in the location," said Murcutt. "Having the pavilion face north, open towards the river, I could work with good climatic conditions. This also means that from within the MPavilion one can view the gardens to the river and the city."
Photography: John Gollings