Images have been released of Melbourne's second annual MPavilion. Designed by British architect Amanda Levete of AL_A, the temporary structure will use the latest technology in nautical engineering to stimulate a forest-like canopy within the city’s Queen Victoria Gardens. A series of three- and five-meter wide petals made from ultra-thin translucent composite and carbon fiber will "sway" on top slender columns, mimicking the tree line to the site's east.
“Our MPavilion 2015 is designed to create the sensation of a forest canopy, made up of seemingly fragile, translucent petals supported by impossibly slender columns that sway gently in the breeze. Under the canopy the light will be dappled and dreamy. We’re working with Australian specialist mouldCAM to use boundary-pushing technology of composite materials to form petals that are five meters in diameter but only a few millimeters thick.”
“By exploiting the temporary nature of the pavilion form, our design subverts the norms of immovable. It embraces and amplifies such distinctions, so that it speaks in response to the weather, and moves with the wind rather than trying to keep it at bay,” added Levete.
"With a focus on exploration of hi-tech techniques and new technology, the result is inventive, risk taking and experimental - encouraging design debate and cultural exchange. Architecture is about experience and ultimately enhancing people’s lives – MPavilion 2015 offers people a meeting place for ideas," said Naomi Milgrom, chair of Naomi Milgrom Foundation who commissioned Amanda Levete to design.
Martin Roth, director of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London will be officially opening MPavilion on October 5, 2015. The MPavilion 2015 will be used to house talks, workshops, performances and installations.
