Designed to grace Queen Victoria Gardens in central Melbourne, Australia, for just one year as part of Naomi Milgrom Foundation’s annual architecture commission MPavilion, the revered Japanese architect Tadao Ando’s concrete pavilion, was granted a five-year extension after city officials voted 5-2 to let it remain on the site until 2030.
On a wintry Tuesday night in Australia’s second largest city, members of Australia’s architecture community joined seven elected city officials at Melbourne Town Hall for a vote to decide the fate of the only Ando-designed building in the Southern Hemisphere.
Featuring in-person and online submissions from the Australian architect Sean Godsell, the executive director of Craft Victoria, Nicole Durling, and the architect and organiser of the community-led Preserve the Pavilion campaign, Jasmine Placentino. The arguments for an extension were further bolstered by letters of support from the executive eirector of the Pritzker Prize, Manuela Luca-Dazio, and the professor and chair of architecture at Harvard University, Grace La, and even Ando himself. Ando credited Australia’s iconic buildings for leaving an “enduring impression” on him as a young man and a wish to return the favour. “When I set out to design MPavilion I hoped to provide an experience of a lifetime akin to my own experience at Sydney Opera House”, he said.
In 2024, city officials were unanimous in their support of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation’s application for a one-year extension. And despite assurances from Elaine Chia, the chief executive of the foundation, that MPavilion would be maintained and managed at “zero financial cost” to the city, last night’s split vote exposed concerns over the foundation’s breach of the memorandum it signed with the city over a decade ago.
Councillor Philip Le Liu, who voted in favour, acknowledged the foundation was “very cheeky” in its use of concrete for a temporary pavilion, while councillor Olivia Ball, who voted against, expressed concerns with the loss of green open space, “I'm alarmed by assertions that it should or could become permanent”, she said. While the temporary chairperson, Davydd Griffiths, who abstained from the vote, lamented what he saw as a missed opportunity, “I really wish that this process had happened differently”, he said.
With the motion carried, Chia was confident that MPavilion, which is currently closed, might reopen as soon as Friday, it’s “a gift to the creative communities and to all Melburnians”, she said.
Erected in Melbourne in 2023 as part of an annual architectural commission, the Japanese architect Tadao Ando’s pavilion was intended only as a temporary addition to the city. Granted a one-year extension in March 2024, in its recently concluded second season the pavilion broke attendance records.
