Koolhaas Tapped for MPavilion

John Hill

20. February 2017

David Gianotten and Rem Koolhaas (Photo: Jane Hobson, courtesy Barbican Art Gallery)

The Naomi Milgrom Foundation has announced that the commission for the fourth annual MPavilion has been awarded to OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture. The project will be designed by partners Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten.

MPavilion is billed as "Australia’s leading architectural commission and design event" in which a temporary pavilion is erected in Melbourne’s historic Queen Victoria Gardens. The announcement of the 2017 iteration comes after the weekend closing of the 2016 MPavilion designed by Bijoy Jain of India's Studio Mumbai. Previous MPavilions were designed by British architect Amanda Levete and Australia's Sean Godsell.

Koolhaas and Gianotten said in a statement, "The Naomi Milgrom Foundation’s MPavilion is now a project of international significance and we look forward to contributing to the architectural legacy it has engendered. We are excited by the brief of designing a cultural heart for the city - a space of public engagement that will spark creativity and discussion, and that will act as a theatre for ideas." They expand upon this in the short video below.

The 2017 MPavilion is expected to open 3 October 2017, though we'll have more news on the pavilion before that, once OMA's design is released to the public.