Out of site, out of mind.
Relocating and remembering Melbourne’s MPavilions
I recently visited Melbourne for the opening of the 2016 MPavilion by India-based architects Studio Mumbai. This was a much anticipated event commissioned by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation and the City of Melbourne. Naomi Milgrom started her eponymous foundation in 2014 with a view to “initiate truly inspirational cultural design and architectural projects that just wouldn’t happen otherwise.” (MPavilion, 2016). Over the next four months this year’s MPavilion will host a variety of events, talks, art installations, performances and of course, an obligatory coffee cart.
Aside from this carefully orchestrated program, the architecture itself warrants admiration and attention. Studio Mumbai’s skilled team of designers, masons and carpenters have collaborated with Australian builders to carefully craft a structure using natural building materials and traditional construction techniques. There is excitement in the air, and in the days leading to its official opening, curious pedestrians linger around the almost complete construction in the Victoria Gardens.
As a keen architectural tourist, I was interested in seeing where and how the previous MPavilions from 2014 and 2015 were living out their retirement following their relocation from Victoria Gardens. What happens to the public memory of these structures when taken away from their original site and program to which they owe their existence and identity?
2014 MPavilion by Sean Godsell
Sean Godsell’s pavilion is a steel framed structure encased in operable aluminium screens that can be folded in and out to host a limitless number of programs and activities. Despite the simple plan and structure, Godsell has made quite a remarkable and poetic architectural gesture from what may be fairly described as a steel box. During its reign as inaugural MPavilion, its perforated aluminium wings were constantly adjusted to alter the pavilion’s aesthetic and its climatic conditions. These active days seem distant from its present hibernation in the courtyard of the the Hellenic Museum.
This courtyard is accessible to the general public and museum goers. Although it can apparently be hired privately for events, it seems does not anticipate occupation as it once did in the the busy and well populated Victoria Gardens. It does make for fine scenery for the occasional museum staffer on a brief smoking break.
Iconoclastic graffiti artists have been at work as this pavilion patiently awaits to be activated by people, and in the interim it contains cafe chairs and heaters at the ready.
The pavilion also has not escaped Mebourne’s ever-changing climate or the high cost of maintenance, as dead leaves and dust accumulate on its roof.
2015 MPavilion by Amanda Levete
This pavilion is located in a public park in the Docklands, a stone’s throw from Melbourne’s CBD. Designed by renowned British artist Amanda Levete, it challenges traditional notions of enclosure by instead taking ownership over the space beneath its translucent carbon fibre and fibreglass petals. This indefinite boundary would have enabled its first visitors to pass seamlessly through it to the Gardens beyond. It is a delicate artistic and architectural gesture, and like Godsell’s pavilion, the open plan can be used for almost any type of program or activity one could imagine within, around or through it. However, a year later in a new site and distanced from any particular program, both myself and other passersby seem unsure of how to engage with the structure.
The pavilion is surrounded by specially-built landscaped garden beds and pathways which ground it in its new location. It is highly visible when approaching it from the street and it is flanked by ample benches from which to sit and appreciate it — from a distance. However it is difficult imagining visitors occupying the space due to lack of internal seating or public amenities, which makes spontaneous occupation problematic.
Within a nexus of public walkways, the pavilion’s indistinct boundary encourages walkers to stray from the path and pass through it. It does make for a pleasant place to walk through, or to temporarily wait out inclement weather, but it does not necessarily feel like a place to linger in.
The carbon fibre and fibreglass petals seem to be coping well with external weather conditions, though in the original MPavilion program, the petals contained LED lighting and small speakers created a dreamlike atmosphere at dusk. As this was not part of its afterlife in the Docklands, it no longer is a destination for the play of light and sound, except for that of passing traffic.
Future for the 2016 MPavilion
It seems that the ongoing success of these pavilions is hinged on a carefully curated relationship with site. The Victoria Gardens, though particularly unique with its manicured topography and vegetation, does offer a social space for action and activity upon which the pavilions rely on for interest and occupation. When constantly enlivened by presentations, concerts and nearby food vans these pavilions unfold their wings or petals and thrive.
When their four-month time in the sun is up, the pavilions are uprooted from their physical and social foundations and must find a new place to engage visitors and exist. Considering the star-status of the designers involved, the architectural and artistic skill employed (and not to mention construction costs) it seems wasteful that these pavilions seem to disappear out of the public eye and memory. The pavilions do still occupy public areas, but they are not grounded by a program of continuing use or interaction with their new site. As a result, they appear as forgotten civic spaces despite their latent potential to be socially engaging and interesting.
On the opening day of Studio Mumbai’s MPavilion, primed for the next four months of activity, once can only hope that towards the end of its program, effective strategies will be in place for continuing its future use. Instead of retiring these pavilions, further consideration should be given to preserving their social status as “An event hub, a meeting place and an invitation to experiment”, and ultimately to remembering them.
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All photographs were taken by the author, and featuring her ponderous partner Pavle.
