MPavilion

Pack a picnic, round up the kids and join us for a lunchtime reading of John Marsden and Shaun Tan’s popular picture book The Rabbits—a partly allegorical fable about colonisation told through the eyes of the colonised, but with an unseen narrator. The fable describes the coming of ‘rabbits’—an encounter that is at first friendly and curious, but later darkens as it becomes apparent that the visit...

Join London Design Festival director Ben Evans and Google Creative Lab director Tom Uglow for the launch of 25XDesign. Conceived by Ben and developed by Google’s Creative Lab, it’s an interactive digital event created to celebrate design and place. MPavilion’s 2015 architect Amanda Levete has contributed her 25 Melbourne design inspirations—from Ugo Rondinone’s ‘Our Magic Hour’ in South Yarra to W...

What goes into commissioning and designing a contemporary cultural space? How should we be thinking about innovation in this context? What are the opportunities that come intertwined with a brief to design a temporary building? Our first MTalks event traces the evolution of MPavilion in its second iteration—from brief to build. Hear from MPavilion’s patron Naomi Milgrom, whose foundation initiated...

This panel brings together architects a range of positions—local, national and international—to review and debate the role of the government architect. The panel includes Ian Gilzean, Scottish government architect; Jill Garner, acting Victorian government architect; John Denton, former Victorian government architect; and Helen Lochhead, assistant NSW government architect. Moderated by Andrew Macke...

Chris Sanderson (of The Future Laboratory) presents a lecture on ‘Designing our future selves: How life in the 21st century is re-modelling what it means to be human’. Technology doesn’t transform society; society transforms itself, using technology. This insight informs a whistle-stop 30-minute journey into the new social mores and trends that are highlighting how the tech-obsessed 21st-century c...

Discover the role of architecture and design in modern city life firsthand from the people who are making Melbourne vibrant. In this MTalk, Dr Flavia Marcello and Bridgette Engeler Newbury—both leading researchers at Swinburne University—discuss the evolution of brands, branding and branded environments, from the shopping arcades of nineteenth-century Paris to the spaces of today that are the inte...

De Anima, by Brook Andrew, was a major new video installation on display at RMIT Design Hub from 12 December 2014 to 14 February 2015. In this MTalk, presented by RMIT Design Hub, Justin Shoulder and Mama Alto revisit their performances from De Anima in a live response to the film’s composition by Theodore Wohng. Their performance is followed by a Q&A with Brook Andrew, Theodore Wohng, Justin Shou...

Melbourne School of Design (MSD) presents an MTalks session in collaboration with Tract Consulting. During October 2014, Tract’s national practice ran a design forum called ‘Rethinking the strip’ that focused on the challenges facing traditional strip-shopping precincts. Tract adopted a shop for the month of October and invited an MSD design studio—including architects, landscape architects and ur...

Over the last twenty-five years, the increased presence of fashion in museums across the world has generated debate about curatorial modes, as well as about how fashion is understood when presented in these modes. In this MTalk, curator and fashion commentator Robyn Healy discusses non-customary exhibition practices—those that don‘t just display fashion via linear dress histories. Touching on nume...

On the eve of Chinese artist Yang Fudong’s solo exhibition at ACMI, MPavilion presented a prelude discussion about his stylised usage of architectural motifs. The discussion, moderated by MPavilion senior curator Natalie King, also investigated the proliferation and design agendas of new museums in China. Guest speakers include Li Ning, curator of the Academic & Research Department at the Shanghai...

Monash University Art, Design and Architecture (MADA) generates creatively provocative ideas and forms that examine social, economic and human issues in order to reshape the world. In this talk, MADA’s Callum Morton and Diego Ramírez-Lovering lead a discussion about the procurement of innovative architecture and public art in the City of Melbourne. Guest panellists include Geoffrey London—former V...

In 1932, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) established the world’s first curatorial department devoted to architecture and design. Director Glenn D. Lowry pioneered and presided over the museum’s 2004 renovation, designed by the Japanese architect Yoshio Taniguchi, and is currently overseeing the ambitious expansion and redevelopment that is set for completion in 2018. Lowry spoke at MPavilion in Oc...

Presented by DIS-cour.se, this discussion looks at the themes prevalent in the film Cathedrals of Culture—a screening collaboration between ACMI and MPavilion in November 2014—and will deliberate on the narrative that is created by our interaction with spaces we know all too well. This panel—of multidisciplinary artist Callum Morton, architects Aaron Roberts and Kristin Green, and visual artist Ma...

Who was John Truscott? The multi-talented theatre designer, festival director and Academy Award-winning film designer was instrumental in creating the vibrant, celebratory public art culture Melburnians enjoy today. He was also responsible for the much-loved Botanica event in the Queen Victoria Gardens—the site of MPavilion. Truscott's skills, achievements and legacy are fuel for lively discussion...

Professor Rob Adams explores ‘design and the city’ in this special Melbourne Festival edition of MTalks. What role does design play in urban revitalisation? What challenges persist for Melbourne’s CBD? What’s next for the inner suburbs and our commuter corridors? Prof. Adams presides over an evening of talking about thinking about cities, with contributions from Bernard Salt (KPMG), Patrick Ness (...

Sean Godsell, architect of the inaugural MPavilion, in conversation with Melbourne Festival creative director Josephine Ridge. Hear how Sean’s pavilion was inspired by pragmatic design responses to the Australian landscape—as well as outback sheds and verandas—and how his versatile and welcoming design echoes the way plants respond to the sun. This flair for flexibility and sustainability is a hal...

What does it take to commission an architectural pavilion and create it from scratch? This talk traces the vision behind MPavilion, from its initial concept and funding to its innovative design. Hear from MPavilion’s patron Naomi Milgrom—whose foundation helped make it a reality—alongside acclaimed architect Sean Godsell, who designed the inaugural 2014/15 pavilion, and Serpentine Galleries direct...

‘Psychogeographical: A Melbourne dérive’ is a self-guided audio exploration; a trip on which to discover the unknown stories of familiar places. Created by DIS-cour.se in collaboration with a group of Melbourne-based emerging writers, the tour is designed to flow on from ACMI’s ‘Cathedrals of Culture’ screenings. It takes the form of a narrated audio stream complemented by a psychogeographical map...