This year, MPavilion, the unique annual architecture commission and design event for Melbourne, has partnered with Britton Timbers, supplier of the architectural timber used for the project.
Founded in 2014, MPavilion is an initiative of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation with support from the City of Melbourne and the Victorian State Government. Every year for four years, an outstanding architect is commissioned to design a temporary pavilion for the Queen Victoria Gardens in Melbourne’s Southbank Arts Precinct. An experience, a meeting place and an invitation to experiment, each MPavilion brings together design, building and creative collaborators to create an engaging architectural space which is free for the public to enjoy over the summer.
After its season in the gardens, each pavilion is gifted to the City of Melbourne and relocated to a permanent site for the ongoing enjoyment of the people of Victoria. The architect and building partners are chosen by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation based on the strength of their architectural profile, ability to contribute to a discussion about the role of architecture and design in contemporary culture, capture the public imagination and have meaningful impact on all who experience it.
Britton Timbers has supported the initiative, offering its expertise, services and products.
This year MPavilion is designed by AL_A, the studio of Stirling Prize-winning British architect Amanda Levete. The temporary structure engages with its setting.
"I wanted to exploit the temporary nature of the pavilion form and produce a design that speaks in response to the weather and its surrounding," says Levete.
MPavilion is a private, public and corporate partnership and involves government, business and private philanthropy. It creates a key new project that provides support to the state’s design, construction, tourism and hospitality industries. The commission has resulted in an exciting British/Australian collaboration with architects AL_A (London) working with Arup Engineers (Melbourne and London), Kane Construction (Melbourne builders), Mouldcam (Australian fabricators of the fibreglass and carbon fibre ceiling), Ben Cobham (lighting designer) and Melbourne-based sound artist, Matthias Schack-Arnott on a soundscape for the building.
Britton Timbers has supplied the architectural timber used for the floor – Silvertop Ash Decking 90×22 and IronAsh F17 structural hardwood for the subfloor.
MPavilion’s four-month program of talks, workshops and performances runs from 5 October 2015 to 7 February 2016.
