Ando's MPavilion Extended a Full Year

Ando's MPavilion opened to the public on November 16, 2023, and wrapped up its five-month run of hosting more than 150 public events two weeks ago, on March 28. Instead of the dismantling and moving that has occurred with previous pavilions, Ando's signature concrete creation will stay for another year, hosting more events from November 2024 to March 2025.

While the decision to extend the 10th MPavilion another twelve months might be due, in part, to the difficulty in moving the structure as part of the Milgrom Foundation's donation to a public venue in Melbourne, it is not mentioned in today's announcement. Emphasis is rather put on the exceptional nature of the design: Ando's only project in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere.

In the ten years since Australian architect Sean Godsell designed the inaugural MPavilion, seven international architects have seen their first projects in Australia come to fruition in Melbourne's Queen Victoria Gardens, among them Rem Koolhaas, Bijoy Jain, and Carme Pinos. As is customary, the temporary pavilions have been donated to other local institutions so they have longer lives and become permanent parts of public life in Melbourne. For example, the fourth MPavilion, designed by OMA partners Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten, was gifted to Monash University in 2018, while the pavilion designed by Australia's only Pritzker Prize winner, Glenn Murcutt, was given to the University of Melbourne in 2020. It will probably be at least another year before we learn about a permanent home for Ando's MPavilion.