October 8, 2018–February 3, 2019
The Naomi Milgrom Foundation today announced the commission for the fifth annual MPavilion has been awarded to internationally renowned Spanish-based architect and educator Carme Pinós of Estudio Carme Pinós. MPavilion 2018 will be the first public commission by a Spanish female architect in Australia. The announcement comes as MPavilion 2017, designed by OMA / Rem Koolhaas & David Gianotten, closed on Sunday, February 11, having received an overwhelming public response with 117,000+ visitors and 477 free events over 133 days.
Naomi Milgrom AO, founder of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, who commissioned Carme Pinós to design MPavilion 2018, commented: “Carme’s remarkable work honours the responsibility of architecture to serve a community, by creating spaces that place human experience and environment at the centre of her designs. Her approach to architecture, social housing and community reflects MPavilion’s ongoing desire to stimulate debate about the role of design and architecture in building creative and equitable cities and communities.”
Commenting on her commission for MPavilion 2018, Carme Pinós, founder of Estudio Carme Pinós, said: “It is my honor and pleasure to have this opportunity to design a new pavilion for the Naomi Milgrom Foundation. It is a great responsibility to create a unique place in this special park with views over Melbourne—a city to which I have deep attachments. I am inspired by the fact that this new project will become a cultural destination for the city.”
A recipient of the prestigious Berkeley-Rupp Architecture Professorship and Prize, Carme has made significant contributions to advance gender equity in the field of architecture with work exhibiting commitment to community. With her humanist approach to architecture, she is celebrated for urban refurbishments, social housing, public works and furniture design. Her architecture has garnered worldwide appreciation in tandem with the rise of modern architecture in Barcelona, increasingly growing in influence and reputation throughout Europe; South, Central and North America; and beyond.
Among her most significant works are the Department Building of the Vienna University of Economics and Business (Austria), the Cube II Towers in Guadalajara (Mexico), the Caixaforum Cultural and Exhibition Centre in Zaragoza (Spain), and the metro station Zona Universitaria and the Crematorium in the Igualada Cemetery, both in Barcelona.
Continuing its strong collaborative approach to programming, MPavilion 2017 engaged more than 475 collaborators including cultural institutions, architects, artists, musicians, dancers, choreographers, scientists and designers to develop the four-month free cultural program. Due to popular demand, the MPavilion 2017 was extended to stretch until Sunday, February 11. Central to the program this year was the figuring of MPavilion as an intergenerational space. Events were spread across a number of themes including design & architecture, liveable cities, and “countryside”—inspired by OMA / Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten.
International guests included architects Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten of OMA; Zaha Hadid Architects principal Patrik Schumacher; V&A curator of contemporary architecture and urbanism, Rory Hyde; London-based architect and director of the REAL foundation, Jack Self; London-based designers Saša Štucin and Nicholas Gardner of Soft Baroque; Albanian contemporary artist Anri Sala; and Singaporean artist Sam Lo.
Responding to OMA’s design, and new this year was MPavilion’s special Regional Program, devised in collaboration with Shepparton Art Museum and Geelong Gallery, and led by Indigenous Architecture and Design Victoria (IADV) director Sarah Lynn Rees. Also new, MPavilion’s inaugural call for proposals. MProjects—a series of specially commissioned installations and interventions—took centre-stage this year, with site-specific works by OMA/ Rem Koolhaas & David Gianotten, Philip Brophy, Matthew Bird, and Soft Baroque.
In December 2017, MPavilion by OMA / Rem Koolhaas & David Gianotten was named by prestigious design bible Wallpaper* as one of the top international buildings that shaped culture in 2017.
MPavilion is Australia’s leading architecture commission and design event, made possible through the vision of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation and Australian philanthropist Naomi Milgrom AO. MPavilion is a philanthropic success story that has seen government, business and private sectors collaborate to bring an important new civic space to Melbourne with strong public, industry and educational components.
MPavilion is supported by partners City of Melbourne, the Victorian State Government through Creative Victoria, the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and ANZ, and has received over 351,000 visitors since its inception in 2014. MPavilion 2017’s Regional Program in collaboration with Shepparton Art Museum and Geelong Gallery has been assisted by the Australian Government through the Australia Council, its arts funding and advisory body. MPavilion is Wi-Fi enabled and powered by Optus.
MPavilion 2018 will open free to the public on October 8, 2018.
For further info visit: www.mpavilion.org
Contact
media [at] mpavilion.org