MPavilion 2019, the sixth MPavilion in an ongoing series, by Australia’s only Pritzker Architecture Prize laureate, Glenn Murcutt AO. The refined, white minimal design reflects Murcutt’s significant contribution to climate-responsive architecture. Celebrating the fiftieth year of Murcutt’s globally influential design practice, MPavilion 2019 will be a milestone summer attraction built in the Queen Victoria Gardens.

MPavilion 2019 relays Murcutt’s longstanding interest in buildings that make efficient use of site and climatic conditions. Prioritising a view of the river and city skyline, the MPavilion consists of a climate responsive rectangular plan with steel frames supporting wing-like trusses covered in tensioned translucent fabric, resulting in a buoyant white roof that will be lit from within at night. The result will be a sleek and adaptable MPavilion, resting on the landscape.
“The MPavilion design is a crisp white building that will be lit at night like a lantern, giving the pavilion a feeling of lightness. For me it was central to establish a sense of ‘place’ for visitors—to view from within the building, the gardens, the river, and the city.”
Glenn Murcutt AO

“Glenn’s very thoughtfully considered MPavilion reflects everything the world has come to love and appreciate about his distinctly Australian design practice over fifty years. I’m excited to bring a new Glenn Murcutt design to life for the community to share.”
Naomi Milgrom AO, founder of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation
 
Influenced by a memory of using a light aircraft’s wing as a temporary shade during a trip to Mexico to visit the Yaxchilán ruins, Murcutt's MPavilion makes use of a membrane lined curved roof and aileron-like flaps to allow for shade and rain pathways. Open along the north and south elevations, the MPavilion’s south elevation is fitted with retractable fabric blinds to provide a level of wind protection when required. At each end of the MPavilion there are alcoves, membrane lined externally, and timber-slat pivot doors internally.

Murcutt’s design has inspired MPavilion’s program themes for its 2019/20 season of free events and will open in the Queen Victoria Gardens, Southbank Arts Precinct, on 14 November 2019 until 22 March 2020.

Taking on a second life, the MPavilion at the end of each season is then gifted by the Foundation to the public. Becoming a legacy of architect-designed pavilions for the state of Victoria, the series enables design awareness to continue into new communities for years to come.

MPavilion is supported by major partners City of Melbourne, the State Government of Victoria through Creative Victoria and Development Victoria, and ANZ. Bringing the pavilion to fruition, design and construction partners include structural engineers AECOM, specialist tensile roof fabric advisor Temple Architecture, surveyors AAM Group and builders Kane Constructions.
 

Overall Geometry.-

- The pavilion will have a rectangular footprint with a total useable covered floor area of approx. 230m2 (24mx 9.6m).
- The overall roof area is 315.9m2 (10.6m wide x 29.8m long).
- The maximum roof height will be approx. 3.9m with a maximum internal ceiling height of 2.5m.

The pavilion design has the following components.-

- Steel framed structure with steel columns spaced at 4.8m centres to form portal frames.
- Wing‐like curved trusses to form the roof structure supported on the columns and provide the pavilion with 2.4m eaves on each side.
- The roof eaves will have a stainless steel garnet‐bead blasted finish creating a slick, sharp finish to the roof perimeter.
- The roof trusses will be wrapped in a translucent tensile roof membrane fabric to the top (Serge Ferrari Flexlite 702 S2).
- The internal ceiling panels will be suspended from the underside of the roof trusses. The ceiling will have translucent white Ceconite fabric stretched taut over sub frame panels.
- LED lighting will be concealed between the ceiling and roof panels to create the effect of a glowing lantern.
- The pavilion has no walls along the 2 long sides.
- The south elevation will be fitted with retractable blinds to provide weather protection when required.
- The north elevation will remain unobstructed at all times and will frame views of the Melbourne skyline.
- At each end of the pavilion, external walls and timber slat pivot doors will conceal a space approximately 4.8m wide by 1m deep to store back‐of‐house equipment and the kiosk facilities.
- The floor will have 1200mm long x 400mm wide concrete pavers within a 1m wide outside perimeter of river pebbles.

Materials

- Serge Ferrari Flexlite 702 S2 (white) has been specified as the tensile roof fabric.
- The ceiling fabric is Ceconite ‐ a synthetic material the same weight as cotton and is heat‐shrunk to fit. It has a translucent characteristic.
- The blinds are Weiner Vertitex 2 rope model fittings and will use the Serge Ferrari Soltis 86 ‐ 2044 white fabric which is semi‐ transparent.

 

 

More information

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MPavilion will open in the Queen Victoria Gardens, Southbank Arts Precinct, Melbourne. Australia
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On 14 November 2019 until 22 March 2020.
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Glenn Murcutt AO is one of Australia’s most respected architects. He has received twenty-five Australian architecture awards, including the RAIA Gold Medal, and international awards such as the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize; Alvar Aalto Medal (Finland); Richard Neutra Award (United States); ‘Green Pin’ International Award for Architecture and Ecology (Denmark); and the Asia Pacific Culture and Architecture Design Award.

Murcutt was born in London, to Australian parents, in 1936. He grew up in the Morobe district of New Guinea, where he developed an appreciation for simple, primitive architecture. After graduating in 1961 with a degree in architecture from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Murcutt travelled for two years before returning to Sydney to work in the office of Ancher, Mortlock, Murray and Woolley. He remained with this firm for five years before establishing his own practice in 1970.

Murcutt’s small but exemplary practice is well known for its environmentally sensitive designs with a distinctive Australian character. His buildings, which are principally residential, are a blend of modernist sensibility, local craftsmanship and respect for nature.

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Naomi Milgrom Foundation was founded in 2014, and its purpose is to enrich Australian cultural life by engaging new audiences with exceptional art, design and architecture. The Foundation, led by Naomi Milgrom AO, has become a model for public-private collaboration by enabling new projects with a focus on public, industry and education components.

MPavilion is the foundation’s main project and is regarded as Australia’s principal architecture commission. The Living Cities Forum, its sister project, is an annual gathering of leading global architects and design innovators.
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