The 2017 MPavilion by Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten of OMA will feature a landscaped berm planted with 12 different Australian indigenous species.
Linda Cheng, OMA’s 2017 MPavilion design revealed, Architecture Now, 20 June 2017
The Naomi Milgrom Foundation has revealed the design of the 2017 MPavilion by Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten of international practice Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA).
The architects described their pavilion, which will be located in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens, as “a public venue with an intimate scale.”
“It’s more or less a roof under which we have an amphitheater that can be transformed [into] different configurations,” David Gianotten said.
The “amphitheater” will consist of two grandstand elements – one of which will be static and surrounded by a landscaped berm planted with 12 different indigenous Australian species. The other will be a rotating bleacher structure which can function as either seating or a stage, blurring the boundaries between actor and audience. The rotating structure will also allow the pavilion to have multiple configurations and to open up to the surrounding gardens and city views.
A two-metre-deep rectilinear gridded structure will float above the amphitheater and contain the lighting equipment required for the pavilion’s series of public events. The structure will be made from steel and clad in aluminium.
“The simple materiality of the pavilion is related to its direct surroundings, positioning the Queen Victoria Gardens itself – and the city of Melbourne – as a basis for activity and debate within the pavilion,” Gianotten said.
“MPavilion is a project that hopes to provoke discussion around what architecture can do both globally and in an Australian context. We’re interested in treating this pavilion not just as an architectural object, but as something that injects intensity into a city and contributes to an ever-evolving culture.”
Rem Koolhaas said, “MPavilion is a project that hopes to provoke discussion around what architecture can do both globally and in an Australian context. We’re interested in treating this pavilion not just as an architectural object, but as something that injects intensity into a city and contributes to an ever-evolving culture.”
“The first time I was in Australia, [I] noticed it’s a kind of almost perfect society but it’s lacking perhaps only in intensity. What is exciting and provocative is maybe through a small thing like a pavilion, you might inject a certain amount of intensity.”
