Tadao Ando’s UFO-esque MPavilion opens in Melbourne

As his landmark first project in Australia, architect Tadao Ando has completed a concrete and aluminium pavilion for Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens.

The structure is the tenth of its kind, commissioned as part of MPavilion – a five-month design festival of free events hosted in a meeting place designed by a major architect. So far, the initiative has seen pavilions created by practices including all(zone), MAP Studio and OMA.

According to the Pritzker Prize-winning architect, Ando’s edition is an attempt ‘to find a scene of eternity’. ‘Eternal, not in material or structure, but in the memory of a landscape that will continue to live in people’s hearts,’ he clarifies.

The pavilion is meditative in nature, comprising a huge disc supported on a single column, surrounded by concrete walls containing long letterbox-shaped spaces to let people glimpse the greenery beyond.

A further sense of calm is created by adding water: a pool takes up half the floor space of the pavilion, creating shadows and reflections on the concrete.

This year’s MPavilion programme of events continues through summer, until March 2024 and includes talks, workshops and performances spanning everything from writing and drawing to traditional crafts.

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