Ando's MPavilion Extended, Once Again
One year after the tenth MPavilion, designed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando, extended its run in Melbourne's Queen Victoria Gardens for an additional year, the Naomi Milgrom Foundation has announced that the structure will remain in place for five more years—until 2030.
When Ando's design for the tenth MPavilion opened to the public in November 2023, we couldn't help wonder if the Naomi Milgrom Foundation's usual tactic of donating the temporary summer pavilions later to other places in Melbourne would also apply. After all, how could an in situ concrete structure technically be relocated? What would become of Ando's first—and so far only—building in Australia?
These questions were addressed last April, when Ando's MPavilion was allowed to stay in place for another year. Now, just over a year later, thanks to an open letter signed by nearly 2,500 names and people testifying at a recent Future Melbourne Committee meeting, the City of Melbourne councillors have approved a five-year extension of Ando's MPavilion. Free for all to enjoy, the MPavilion will also host events, with details to be announced.
“I am honored that MPavilion will remain in Queen Victoria Gardens as a place for the community to gather and reflect. Architecture is not only about buildings, it is about creating places for people and nature to coexist. My deepest thanks to Naomi Milgrom AC, a true champion of architecture, whose vision and generosity have made this possible.”
Although this week's news of the “saving” of the tenth MPavilion is undoubtedly good, it does raise more questions, namely: Will the Naomi Milgrom Foundation commission other architects to design temporary pavilions, perhaps on another site? Like the older Serpentine Pavilion it is modeled after, the annual MPavilion has given architects the opportunity to build in Melbourne and provided residents exemplary settings for summer events. Each year brought an new name and a new design to Queen Victoria Gardens. As of now, that cycle is no more.
Another question concerns the Naomi Milgrom Foundation's philanthropic donation of the MPavilions to other sites in Melbourne. Most of the structures were designed to be relocated—and they were: Studio Mumbai's MPavilion was gifted to the Melbourne Zoo, for instance, while OMA's went to Monash University, and Glenn Murcutt's was given to the University of Melbourne. Will Melbourne institutions be missing out on similar innovative additions to their landscapes? Perhaps now, with a five-year plan in place for Ando's MPavilion, Milgrom and her eponymous foundation can address the future—if any—of the annual commission that began in 2014.