MPavilion

Our MTalks series meets Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA)’s Boiler Room series as MUMA presents a lecture by artists Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley, coinciding with their participation in the international exhibition The humours at MUMA from 7 October to 16 December 2017. Mary Reid Kelley combines painting, performance and distinctive wordplay-rich poetry in graphically stylised black-an...

Our MTalks series meets Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA)’s Boiler Room series as MUMA presents a lecture by artists Mary Reid Kelley and Patrick Kelley, coinciding with their participation in the international exhibition The humours at MUMA from 7 October to 16 December 2017. Mary Reid Kelley combines painting, performance and distinctive wordplay-rich poetry in graphically stylised black-an...

Join us at MPavilion for an exploration of the potential intersections of landscape architecture and deliberative development, presented by AILA Cultivate—a committee of the Australian Institute of Landscape Architects (AILA) that aims to expand ideas of landscape architecture beyond traditional practice. Deliberative development, a designer-led development process introduced to mainstream Melbour...

Having a baby changes your perception of the city. Suddenly, things become less accessible: trams are difficult to lift a pram into, there’s no space in your favourite cafe to change a nappy and events happen at night while you soothe your baby to sleep—and so the trials of new parenthood are mostly screened off from public view. (Some public institutions do offer parenting facilities, but they’re...

Having a baby changes your perception of the city. Suddenly, things become less accessible: trams are difficult to lift a pram into, there’s no space in your favourite cafe to change a nappy and events happen at night while you soothe your baby to sleep—and so the trials of new parenthood are mostly screened off from public view. (Some public institutions do offer parenting facilities, but they’re...

In this Monday night MTalks, Contemporary Art Organisations Australia (CAOA) brings together an esteemed panel of speakers to explore the present-day visual arts ecology from the perspective of independent, not-for-profit, and artist-run sectors. Independent visual arts organisations occupy a space in the arts ecology—at the intersection of production and development—that necessitates a responsive...

With the long-held title of ‘world’s most liveable city’, Melbourne regularly attracts international interest as an economically viable space for exploration. In the eighties and nineties, an appetite for the international architectural elite drew the likes of I.M. Pei and Kisho Kurokawa to Melbourne. More recently, OMA—and its research arm, AMO—turned its attention towards Australia, describing i...

Good design is essential for creating sustainable, inclusive, healthy and beautiful places, but can we actually measure ‘good design’? And if so, how should this influence how we design places? The Office of the Victorian Government Architect brings us a fast-paced MTalks panel discussion exploring the tangible and intangible benefits of good design for health, education, public spaces, transport...

Our current historical moment is one of profound global friction and uncertainty. From the ugly spectre of heightened tension in the Korean peninsula, underlined by the threat of nuclear weapons, to US President Donald Trump’s recent threats to drop the Iran Deal, the grave threat of nuclear conflict looms worryingly large. In the face of these perilous times, the growing imperative of a coordinat...

New for MPavilion 2017: Friday night debates. We put leading and emerging minds in architecture behind the microphones and pit them head-to-head in a series of debates on architecture. On this Friday night, a six-person panel of established architects considers a critical issue in Australia today: affordable housing. The proposition posits: Is affordable housing just for the middle class? How can...

Join Alexis Wright, award-winning author of Carpentaria and The Swan Book, in conversation with Readings bookseller Chris Dite to speak about her new book Tracker: Stories of Tracker Tilmouth—to be launched by Indigenous activist Jacqui Katona. Tracker is a collective memoir of the charismatic Aboriginal leader, political thinker and entrepreneur Tracker Tilmouth, who died in Darwin in 2015 at the...

The ‘smart’ city, the ‘liveable’ city, the ‘sustainable’ city—are these empty concepts, utopian metaphors or strategic objectives? And can cities be all these things at the same time, or are they dynamic emergent services that cities strive to provide their citizens? This panel discussion—curated by Swinburne University of Technology and moderated by Peter Graham, deputy director of Swinburne’s Ce...

In the midst of the Australian government’s widely criticised postal plebiscite on marriage equality, the ‘Yes’ campaign mobilised thousands of people—many involved in a political campaign for the first time in their lives. Now that the ‘yes’ result is in, where will these energies turn after the poll? And what will be the marriage equality movement’s next priorities? In this special MTalks sessio...

The drive towards smart cities is accelerating all over the world, with governments and private enterprises becoming increasingly eager to take part in the technology-driven push for more sustainable, efficient, clean and safe cities. But where does the ‘smart citizen’ come into the picture? This public forum will explore a citizen-centric view of smart cities, looking at how interaction designers...

Macau has undergone major shifts over the past 500 years. From merchant port of refuge and gateway for Jesuit missionaries to a 20th-century modernist Portuguese province—it has always been a place traversed by poets and artists. The Macau of today is a phantasmagoric site for gambling that rivals Las Vegas. Come down to MPavilion for an enlightening conversation between artist John Young, novelis...

New for MPavilion 2017: Friday night debates. We put leading and emerging minds in architecture behind the microphones and pit them head-to-head in a series of debates on architecture. In Melbourne, we’re lucky to have a strong culture of discourse in the architecture industry, which starts from first year of architectural studies, critiquing our peers and critiquing ourselves against our peers’ w...

Join Patrice Sharkey, the director of Melbourne’s long-running CBD gallery West Space, as she presents the 46th WRITING & CONCEPTS lecture. WRITING & CONCEPTS is both a public lecture series and publication produced by Jan van Schaik and published by ART + AUSTRALIA that reflects on the relationship between the process of writing and the development of social, political and philosophical questions...

New for MPavilion 2017: Friday night debates. We put leading and emerging minds behind the microphones, and pit them head-to-head in this series of debates on architecture and the built environment. On this spring evening in November, join Mel Bright (MAKE architecture), Andre Bonnice (WOWOWA), Ben Milbourne (Bild Architecture), Amy Muir (MUIR Architecture), Adam Pustola (Lyons) and Claire Scorpo....

What happens when you celebrate LGBTQIA+ elders, aged 65 and over, on one big night at Melbourne Town Hall? And how can we can we promote this feeling every day in our cities? Originating as a monthly social dance class, the Coming Back Out Ball was a red-carpet event held on October 7 this year to build a culture of respect for the LGBTQIA+ community. As part of Sibling Architecture’s ‘Designing...

In 2017, Melbourne was again named the world’s most liveable city for a record seven years in a row—but how liveable is Melbourne for our ageing population? And what can we do better now to plan for the increasing percentage of people over 65 in coming decades? As part of Sibling Architecture’s ‘Designing the age-friendly city‘ day-long takeover of MPavilion, this evening panel event will cover to...

Zaha Hadid Architects principal Patrik Schumacher has been headlined as many things, including ‘the world’s most provocative architect’. A true believer in innovation, Patrik is not someone who shies away from engaging in challenging conversations on some of the most urgent issues of our generation. He notoriously created a worldwide outcry following his keynote address at the World Architecture F...

Open Tabs is a fast-paced, lighthearted exploration of trends and internet pop culture with five Melbourne creative luminaries—Beci Orpin, Dave King, Jeremy Wortsman, Lucy Feagins, and Marc Martin—who bravely bare their souls (and computing devices) to share their current internet obsessions. Peering over opened laptops with an eye on their open browser tabs, this eclectic panel of Melbourne cultu...

As the housing affordability topic rises in our minds in unison with rental and purchase prices, Australian state and local governments have started investigating the possibility of helping propagate a build-to-rent housing sector. Described as ‘radical’ by Australian press, but an initiative common in the USA and the UK, build-to-rent communities involve development designed with the intent of lo...

Celebrated Albanian artist Anri Sala has gained international attention for his video, animation and photographic works. With an emphasis on slowness, stillness and intimate detail, Sala explores the interface of documentary and fiction, with his work rooted in memory, history and a delicate navigation of political and social contexts. In October, Anri Sala will visit Australia to unveil an innova...

The Small Homes Service, initiated by Robin Boyd in 1947, sought to popularise the modern home and make it available to a broad public. It had an immense positive impact on the then burgeoning suburbs, with an estimated 15% of new homes in Victoria being built as part of the scheme. But toward the end of his life Robin Boyd could already see the deleterious effect suburban sprawl was having on the...