Architect Tadao Ando Reveals 10th MPavillion

Tadao Ando b. 1941, Japan Follow +

Tadao Ando‘s concrete-walled pavilion in Melbourne‘s Queen Victoria Gardens opened to the public today. It will remain on view through 28 March 2024.

The Pritzker-prize winning Japanese architect’s creation is the tenth MPavillion commission and his first project in Australia.

The pavilion comprises a 14.4-metre aluminium-clad canopy that rests on a three-metre-high central column. An enclosed sanctuary is formed by two offset squares half filled by a reflecting pool. Horizontal slit windows open the space to the outside.

Ando, who is known for projects such as the Church of the Light in Osaka and the Pulitzer Art Foundation in St. Louis, said his MPavilion design began from ‘a desire to find a scene of eternity’ within the Gardens.

Ando explained ‘eternity here does not refer to the physical continuation or perpetuation of matter and form. Rather, it indicates the intangible emotions and memories that live in the hearts and minds of people.’

Ando said the pavilion was designed to create changing sequences of light and dark throughout the day and over the seasons.

‘The surfaces that the light touches will also change—walls will reveal arresting patterns of shadows, while the water from the reflecting pool may cast dappled patterns on a previously plain surface,’ he said.

Ando’s interests in light and the human aspect of architecture were inspired by the work of Swiss architect Le Corbusier. He hid under the shelves in a bookshop reading a book about the Modernist icon before he could afford to buy it.

He told Ocula Magazine that the building that most influenced him was the Ronchamp Chapel.

‘In the space where intense light pours down, I witnessed people standing shoulder to shoulder, praying with one heart,’ he said. ‘That scene has become my original image of architecture as a “place where people gather”.’

‘It is a scene I have been pursuing to this day’, he said.

Over the next five months Ando’s MPavilion will host ten projects—including art, food, design, crafts, and photography events—to mark MPavillion’s tenth anniversary.

Designers of previous MPavilions include: Francesco Magnani & Traudy Pelzel from the Venice-based MAP studio, Spanish architect Carme Pinós, and Rem Koolhaas & David Gianotten from Dutch firm OMA.

Ando singled out the designer of the sixth MPavllion, Australian architect Glenn Murcutt, for special praise. He admired the architect’s ‘profound thoughtfulness to the tiniest detail’, and his ability to deeply move and inspire people to discover a new version of themselves.—[O]

Main image: Aerial view of MPavilion 10, designed by Tadao Ando, located in the Queen Victoria Gardens in Melbourne. Courtesy of MPavilion. Photo: John Gollings.