MPavilion 2015 by Amanda Levete of AL_A

British architect Amanda Levete, principal of London-based AL_A, designed the second MPavilion, open in Melbourne, Australia from 4 October 2014 to 7 February 2015.

MPavilion 2015 roof 'petals' by Rory GardinerMPavilion

About

Founded in 2014, MPavilion is a unique architecture commission and design event for Melbourne. Initiated by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation with support from City of Melbourne and the Victorian State Government, every year for four years an outstanding architect will be commissioned to design a temporary pavilion for the Queen Victoria Gardens, in the centre of Melbourne’s Southbank Arts Precinct. An event hub, a meeting place and an invitation to experiment, each MPavilion brings creative collaborators together to present a free, four-month program of talks, workshops, performances and installations from October to February over summer. In 2015, the second iteration of MPavilion, following Sean Godsell (2014), was designed by British architect Amanda Levete, principal of AL_A and formerly a partner at Future Systems.

Amanda Levete by Peter Guenzel and AL_AMPavilion

The architect

Amanda Levete (1955 - )

Amanda Levete and Naomi Milgrom (2015) by MPavilion and Peter GuenzelMPavilion

Amanda  Levete  is  a  Stirling  Prize  winning  architect  and  founder  and  principal  of  AL_A,  an  international award-­winning design and architecture studio. Since its formation in 2009, AL_A has refined an intuitive and strategic approach to design that has radicalised clients and briefs, led to a diverse  range  of  concepts  for  cultural,  retail  and  commercial  schemes  around  the  world.  Recent  commissions include the highly anticipated expansion of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, a 1.5  million  sq  ft  luxury  shopping  mall  and  hotel  in  Bangkok  on  the  former  grounds  of  the  British  Embassy, a new centre for the cancer care charity Maggie’s, a 13­‐hectare media campus for Sky, and  a  cultural  centre  in  Lisbon  commissioned  by  Energias  De  Portugal  (EDP).

2015 MPavilion architect Amanda Levete (of AL_A) on the changing role of risk in architecture (2015-08-24) by Australian Institute of ArchitectsMPavilion

MPavilion 2015 speaking on the role of 'risk' within architecture. Video courtesy of the Australian Institute of Architects.

Lord's Media Centre (1999) by Future SystemsMPavilion

Pictured: Amanda Levete's Lord's Media Centre (1999), winner her the Stirling Prize (Britain's highest architectural accolade) while working as a partner for Future Systems.

Selfridges Birmingham designed by Future Systems (2003) by AL_A and Norbert SchoernerMPavilion

Victoria and Albert Museum Courtyard by AL_A and V&AMPavilion

Martin Roth discusses the 2015 MPavilion commission (2015-07-12) by MPavilionMPavilion

Martin Roth, former director of London's Victoria and Albert Museum, speaks about Amanda Levete's practice in relation to the V&A and furthers his thoughts about her ideas for MPavilion 2015.

Naomi Milgrom, MPavilion patron, discusses 2015 commission (2015-07-12) by MPavilionMPavilion

MPavilion patron, Naomi Milgrom explains the vision behind MPavilion as a whole and imparts her thoughts on MPavilion 2015.

MPavilion 2015: Construction (2015) by Benjamin Hosking and MPavilionMPavilion

The process

MPavilion 2015: Site plan (2015) by MPavilion and AL_AMPavilion

MPavilion 2015: Floor plan (2015) by MPavilion and AL_AMPavilion

MPavilion 2015: Roof plan (2015) by MPavilion and AL_AMPavilion

MPavilion 2015: Elevation (2015) by MPavilion and AL_AMPavilion

MPavilion 2015: Daytime render (2015) by MPavilion and AL_AMPavilion

MPavilion 2015 render, by night by MPavilion and AL_AMPavilion

Design statement by AL_A:

The Pavilion, rooted within the natural landscape of the Queen Victoria Gardens, has been designed to create the sensation of a forest canopy. A dematerialised structure that feels more akin to its natural surroundings than to a building, it gives shelter for a programme of events.

The canopy is made up by a number of seemingly fragile, translucent petals. The petals are supported by impossibly slender columns that gently sway in the breeze. Exploiting the temporary nature of the pavilion form, our design subverts the norms of immovable and immutable buildings. It embraces and amplifies such distinctions, so that it speaks in response to the weather, and moves with the wind rather than trying to keep it at bay.

Complexity increases through repetition, using two sizes of petals to create multiple configurations. At the centre, the petals tightly cluster and are layered to give a continuous shingled surface. As the Pavilion fades out into the parkland, the size and number of spaces increase until the trees themselves take over the Pavilion’s role and the structure dissolves.

The slender carbon fibre columns conceal the wiring of lights and speakers. A halo-like effect is created by an LED strip forming the capital to the column, while pioneering technology turns the petals themselves into amplifiers. From surrounding high-rises, the Pavilion will have a glowing aura and particular presence in the otherwise darkened garden at night.

Visitors approach from all directions, barely perceiving the distinction between tree canopy and Pavilion, aided by a smooth transition from grass to timber deck on the same level. Flowerbeds arrayed around the edge subtly define the entrances that visitors can filter in and out through.

Inside, the performance space is oriented to provide a backdrop of the jagged urban skyline to the north or the delicately layered treeline to the east. The slender columns are arranged on a 4m x 4m grid at the centre to afford a generous event space. The MPavilion is the product of an Anglo-Australian collaboration led by AL_A, working with Arup’s London and Melbourne offices, alongside MouldCam and Kane Construction.

MPavilion 2015 (roof detail) (2015) by MPavilionMPavilion

Employing the aesthetic and technology of hi-tech nautical engineering, the 3m and 5m diameter petals, which are only 3mm thick, are formed of ultra-thin translucent composite and carbon fibre, developed with an Australian boat specialist. Each petal is formed by a carbon fibre weave, interlacing structure and aesthetic together to form the pattern that falls as shadow on the floor. Reinforcement is embedded into the surface of the borderless petal, rather than as an encircling frame.

Getting a grip at MPavilion 2015MPavilion

MPavilion 2015's carbon fibre columns in focus.

MPavilion 2015 lighting prototype (2015) by MPavilion and AL_AMPavilion

MPavilion 2015: prototype (2015) by MPavilion and AL_AMPavilion

MPavilion 2015: Construction (2015) by Benjamin Hosking and MPavilionMPavilion

MPavilion 2015: Construction (2015) by MPavilion and Benjamin HoskingMPavilion

MPavilion 2015: Construction (2015) by MPavilion and Benjamin HoskingMPavilion

MPavilion 2015: Construction (2015) by Benjamin Hosking and MPavilionMPavilion

MPavilion 2015: Construction (2015) by Benjamin Hosking and MPavilionMPavilion

MPavilion 2015: Construction (2015) by MPavilion and Benjamin HoskingMPavilion

MPavilion 2015: Construction (2015) by MPavilion and Benjamin HoskingMPavilion

MPavilion 2015 by John Gollings and MPavilionMPavilion

MPavilion 2016 revealed

MPavilion 2015 at sunset (2015-10-05) by MPavilionMPavilion

Amanda Levete, 2015 MPavilion architect:

It’s an honour to have been commissioned by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation to design the second edition of the MPavilion.

I’ve visited Australia three times in the past six years and without doubt Melbourne is my favourite city. I’ve always met a diverse and interesting group of friendly, welcoming people. It’s people that make a city creative – and that’s why I love Melbourne.

The brief is a great opportunity to design a structure that responds to the climate and the landscape. I wanted to exploit the temporary nature of the pavilion form and produce a design that speaks in response to the weather. Rooting the pavilion in its parkland setting, I looked to create the sensation of a forest canopy in the heart of the city that gives shelter to a programme of events.

We have a long history of working with boat builders and Australia has some of the finest. We’re working with a yacht fabricator to employ the boundary-pushing technology of composite materials to create the canopy, which is made up by a number of seemingly fragile, translucent petals supported by impossibly slender columns that gently sway in the breeze.

RG781c_0575MPavilion

Pictured: MPavilion 2015's 43 'petals'—13 with five-metre spans and 30 with three-metre spans—supported by 95 slender columns looking toward the southern end of Melbourne's central business district.

MPavilion 2015: an interview with Amanda Levete (2015-10-09) by MPavilionMPavilion

For me what was to important was to root this structure in place. It wasn’t hard with the incredible lushness of the Queen Victoria Gardens and the significance of the site opposite the National Gallery of Victoria.

– AL_A's Amanda Levete describing her ethos behind the second MPavilion.

MPavilion 2015 at sunrise by Richard Powers and MPavilionMPavilion

MPavilion 2015 by Richard Powers and MPavilionMPavilion

MPavilion 2015: A roof closeup by Rory GardinerMPavilion

A brief pause at MPavilion 2015 by Rory GardinerMPavilion

MPavilion 2015 in full by Rory GardinerMPavilion

MPavilion 2015 at sunrise by Rory GardinerMPavilion

MPavilion 2015: A closeup by Rory GardinerMPavilion

MPavilion 2015 geometry by Rory GardinerMPavilion

MPavilion 2015's petals by MPavilion and John GollingsMPavilion

MPavilion 2015 at dusk by Richard Powers and MPavilionMPavilion

A sketch of MPavilion 2015 by Oslo Davis and MPavilionMPavilion

Illustrator extraordinaire Oslo Davis visited MPavilion to capture MPavilion on paper.

MPavilion 2015 at dusk by John Gollings and MPavilionMPavilion

MPavilion 2015 at dusk.

MPavilion 2015 at Docklands Park (2016) by MALA Studio, MPavilion, and Places VictoriaMPavilion

The relocation

At the close of each season, each MPavilion gets re-gifted to the City of Melbourne from the Naomi Milgrom Foundation. AL_A's MPavilion now resides in Docklands Park, nestled just outside of Melbourne's Hoddle Grid. 

MPavilion 2015 at Docklands (2016) by MPavilion and Alan WeedonMPavilion

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra perform at MPavilion 2015, Docklands. (2016) by MPavilion and Alan WeedonMPavilion

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra perform at MPavilion 2015, Docklands. (2016) by MPavilion and Alan WeedonMPavilion

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.