MPavilion 2018 celebrates building communities, women in leadership and inclusive design.

Designed by Barcelona-based architect and educator Carme Pinós of Estudio Carme Pinós, MPavilion 2018 opened recently in the Queen Victoria Gardens in Melbourne, setting off a free four-month program of events from 9 October 2018 to 3 February 2019, featuring over 500 Australian and international guests and collaborators.

An ongoing series of annual architect-designed summer pavilions in Melbourne, the MPavilion is commissioned by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation with support from the City of Melbourne, Victorian State Government through Creative Victoria and ANZ. Carme Pinós’ MPavilion marks the first public work in Australia by a female Spanish architect.

MPavilion 2018 was officially opened by MPavilion founder Naomi Milgrom, Carme Pinós and the City of Melbourne’s councillor Rohan Leppert.

Naomi Milgrom, chair of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, said that Carme’s vision opens Australia to conversations about how to make cities more inclusive through design.

According to the lord mayor of the City of Melbourne Sally Capp, the annual MPavilion program has been a major success, featuring collaborations between more than 1,000 designers, architects, and cultural and educational institutions.

Describing her design for MPavilion, Carme Pinós explained that she sought to make a space for the people of Melbourne to feel connected not only to each other, but also to the city they live in, and to nature.

Pinós’ pavilion has a sculptural design incorporating origami-inspired majestic wings that open the MPavilion to the city, encouraging movement, meetings and new experiences.

Highlights also include a geometric configuration assembled in two distinct halves intersecting with each other to form the roof; and three mounds incorporating seating, allowing a multitude of community-focused activities during the MPavilion 2018/19 season of events.

The MPavilion 2018 program features hundreds of free public events through MTalks, MMeets, MMusic, MKids and MProjects event series, as well as MPavilion’s own curated MRelay series of tag-team talks, which this year focus on fostering inclusive and equitable cities.

The Indigenous architecture forum series BLAKitecture, initiated in 2017 and curated by MPavilion’s program consultant Sarah Lynn Rees has been further expanded this year.

MPavilion also introduces the Writer in Residence program this year featuring Maddee Clark, a Yugambeh writer, editor and curator who will investigate the intersections between architecture and the written word.

MPavilion’s 2018 Artist in Residence is award-winning Melbourne artist Esther Stewart, who will create an interactive installation at MPavilion to be enjoyed over summer.

The MPavilion 2018 program also includes celebrated London’s former director of Tate museums Sir Nicholas Serota CH, UK design sensations Fixperts, NY’s Hyphen Labs, Bakehouse Studios, Melbourne Theatre Company, Science Gallery Melbourne, Chunky Move, Melbourne Music Week, Multicultural Arts Victoria, RMIT University, SensiLab at Monash University, Heide Museum of Contemporary Art, Westside Circus, Liquid Architecture, and Melbourne Recital Centre among many more.

The MPavilion is open every day from 9am to 4pm throughout the season.

Image: Credit John Gollings