Inside Story  ·  Milestone

Tadao Ando Awarded Commission for 2023 MPavilion

March 31, 2023

Pritzker Prize-winning Japanese architect will design the 10th annual MPavilion, his first work in Australia.

Pritzker prize-winning architect Tadao Ando, Hon. FAIA, will design the 10th MPavilion—an annual five-month architecture commission and design festival located in the historic Queen Victoria Gardens, a parkland in Melbourne’s city center. The Naomi Milgrom Foundation, the Austrailian nonprofitthat commissions architects to produce the pavilion, chose Andao to forge their key mission this year: enliving Australian life and culture through art, architecture, and design projects. MPavillion 10 is set to open on Nov. 16, and will host free public programs including lectures, music performances, and family-friendly workshops based on central themes that will be announced in May.

“Each year, MPavilion commissions architects with a unique design language and social purpose and gives them complete freedom to realize their vision,” said Naomi Milgrom, founder of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, in a press release from MPavilion. “I have long admired how Tadao Ando responds to and incorporates the particularity of a place into his design, and his belief that architecture can shape a society. As the MPavilion prepares for the 10th edition, we look forward to sharing Ando’s work in Australia for the very first time and having his MPavilion become a vital site in the cultural and community life of Melbourne.”

Ando is known for his contemporary architectural projects that combine geometry and nature along with his confident use of concrete. Some of his famous work includes the Church of the Light (1989; Osaka, Japan), Pulitzer Arts Foundation (2001; St. Louis), Chichu Art Museum (2004; Naoshima, Japan), 21_21 Design Sight (2007; Tokyo), and Bourse de Commerce—Pinault Collection (2020; Paris).

“The design for the MPavilion began with a desire to find a scene of eternity within the public gardens of the Queen Victoria Gardens in Melbourne,” Ando said in a release from MPavilion. “Eternal, not in material or structure, but in the memory of a landscape that will continue to live in people’s hearts.”

More than 900,000 visitors have participated in the annual MPavilion initiative since its formation in 2014. At the closing of each festival, the Naomi Milgrom Foundation works to relocate the pavilion to a new, permanent home in Australia. MPavilion 9, designed by female-led, Bangkok-based firm All(zone), is currently open to the public through April 6, 2023, and will be relocated at a later date.

For more information please visit www.architectmagazine.com