Erected in Melbourne, Australia, in 2023 as part of an annual architectural commission, the Japanese architect Tadao Ando’s pavilion was intended only as a temporary addition to the city. Granted a one-year extension in March 2024, in its recently concluded second season the pavilion broke attendance records. Ando’s structure is now closed and its future restas with city officials, with a decision expected by June.
Since 2014 a coterie of leading architects, including Amanda Levete, Bijoy Jain, Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten, and the Australian Glenn Murcutt, have designed temporary pavilions for Queen Victoria Gardens, a park opposite the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne’s arts precinct. The initiative is part of MPavilion, an annual architecture commission and cultural programme launched by the philanthropist Naomi Milgrom. From November to March (with the exception of 2020) the architect-designed structures have hosted public talks, workshops, events and much more under the MPavilion umbrella.
‘A dialogue between architecture and nature’
Milgrom tells The Art Newspaper she founded MPavilion so that “architecture is not just seen but felt as part of everyday life”. Often referred to as the “Picasso of concrete”, Ando approached the site in his signature minimalist style. The result is a beautifully proportioned open-air space on a 14 sq. m footing, topped with a circular aluminium roof, held aloft by a single voluminous column and surrounded by long slender walls cast in silky-smooth concrete. Inside, a long bench directs visitors to contemplate a shallow pool built into the building’s foundation.
The pavilion is a “dialogue between architecture and nature”, Ando said of his design in 2023. It also spoke to the public—to date more than 300,000 people have stepped inside. “For some, it’s been a long-awaited opportunity to experience Ando’s work up close,” Milgrom says.
Seven of the previous eight pavilions were gifted to institutions, including universities and Melbourne Zoo. When Ando’s MPavilion 10 first opened, critics questioned the viability of relocating a predominantly concrete structure.
“Fundamentally, all the components of that building can be disassembled,” the Melbourne-based architect Sean Godsell noted at the 2023 media preview. Godsell designed the inaugural MPavilion in 2014 and served as Ando’s executive architect on MPavilion 10.
‘Not relocatable’
According to Milgrom, from the outset the public response to MPavilion 10 has been different. The way people “connected with the space, personally and collectively shifted our thinking”, Milgrom says. At the conclusion of its season, Milgrom sought an extension from Melbourne City Council, which governs the site. As a sweetener she offered to foot the bill for site security and maintenance in the off season.
MPavilion, in Queen Victoria Gardens, is usually an annual commission that hosts public events
Photo: Marie-Luise Skibbe, courtesy MPavilion
Milgrom’s submission included letters of support from Nicholas Serota, the chair of Arts Council England, Cameron Bruhn, the chief executive of the Australian Institute of Architects, and a statement from Ando himself.
Although the motion to extend MPavilion 10’s stay was carried unanimously by the council in April 2024, the former councillor Rohan Leppert stressed it was only temporary. “In 12 months’ time, sadly, MPavilion at this location will come to an end,” Leppert said at the time. He stood down as a councillor in October 2024.
One year on, MPavilion’s fate now rests with newly elected Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece and nine councillors, five of whom are new.
“Unlike other MPavilions, the MPavilion by Tadao Ando is not relocatable,” responded a City of Melbourne spokesperson when approached for comment.
