The home of architecture and design in the Asia-Pacific

Get the latest design news direct to your inbox!

The show goes on at MPavilion

Events continue apace at Tadao Ando’s MPavilion in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens, as Season 11 progresses into 2025.

The show goes on at MPavilion

BLAKitecture HOME, photo by Kayla May Petty-Kook.

Season 11 at Tadao Ando’s MPavilion has been running since November 2024 and the highlights continue well into 2025. Running until 22nd March 2025, Season 11 sees artists, designers, makers and musicians reimagine Ando’s pavilion inside and out. It’s been co-curated with the newly formed Curatorial Collective, a cross-disciplinary group of eight thought-leading creative practitioners based in Melbourne. The free program invites curious audiences of all ages to experience architecture in new ways, spotlighting several key series alongside cornerstone events.

Building Blocks is on until 25th January, offering hands-on design activities for families over the school holiday period, headlined by Box Wars, known for their inventive cardboard-based art creations. A significant highlight is Hands-on with a New Material, a workshop with Jessie French (OTHER MATTER). As a global leader in environmentally responsible material design, she’ll run a workshop where you’ll get to create and play with non-petrochemical plastics.

A Very Koori Pool Party, photo by Michael Pham.

Elaine Chia, CEO of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation – a not-for-profit organisation with the central purpose of enhancing the presence and influence of creative culture in Australia – comments: “This January, Building Blocks transforms Tadao Ando’s MPavilion into a playground of collective creativity for the young and young at heart. We invite everyone to dive into hands-on craft activities, dream up fantastical AI worlds, and discover a summer of design during the school holidays.”

Every Living Thing then begins on 15th February, running up to 6th March, and draws inspiration from the pavilion’s park setting, examining our relationship with the non-human. It also features an installation by Reef Design Lab showcasing reef restoration techniques using their modular artificial reef system.

Related: Tadao Ando at W Osaka

BLAKitecture HOME, photo by Kayla May Petty-Kook.

BLAKitecture: HOME is set to be another standout event as Bradley Kerr and the Creative Directors of the Australian Pavilion host an interactive yarn. It comes as they prepare for the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, exploring Indigenous Knowledge systems and architectural innovation.

Naomi Milgrom AC, commissioner of MPavilion, concludes: “We are incredibly grateful to the City of Melbourne for extending the life of Tadao Ando’s MPavilion in Queen Victoria Gardens. In one short year, the pavilion has become a beloved landmark for Melburnians and visitors alike – a place to gather, unwind, be inspired and connect with the natural world. MPavilion’s eleventh season builds on the first decade of MPavilion and I’m excited to see the gardens activated again this summer, and to experience the broad array of activities which take the Ando pavilion as the inspiration and springboard for new ideas and collective creativity.” 

MPavilion
mpavilion.org

Building Blocks – A Family Affair, Music in Exile, Ausecuma Beats, photo by Dallas Howell.
Building Blocks – BoxWars, photo by William Hamilton-Coates.
Building Blocks, Jessie French, photo by Charles Dennington.
BLAKitecture HOME, photo by Kayla May Petty-Kook.
Photo by Rory Gardiner.
RMIT Fashion Party Opening Weekend, photo by Michael Pham, 2023.
The Cloud Maker, photo by Sung Hyun Sohn.
Tilman Robinson Live Shot, photo Bee Elton.
Untitled (Drip) by Amber McCartney, photo by Isabella Oliveria.

We think you might also like this story on Tadao Ando’s design for MPavilion.

INDESIGN is on instagram

Follow @indesignlive


The Indesign Collection

A searchable and comprehensive guide for specifying leading products and their suppliers


Indesign Our Partners

Keep up to date with the latest and greatest from our industry BFF's!

Related Stories


While you were sleeping

The internet never sleeps! Here's the stuff you might have missed