Petal-Shaped MPavilion by Amanda Levete Opens in Melbourne.

Officially opened on October 5th, the new MPavilion in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens is designed to provide shade – and free culture events – during the summer. Created by award-winning London-based architect Amanda Levete, director of AL_A, the MPavilion 2015 employs hi-tech nautical engineering to create a series of 3 and 5 meter wide petals, made out of ultra-thin translucent composite and carbon fiber. The design was developed in collaboration with Australian specialist mouldCAM.

Founded in 2014, MPavilion is a unique architecture commission and design event for Melbourne, initiated by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation with support from City of Melbourne and the Victorian State Government. Every year for four years, an outstanding architect will be commissioned to design a temporary pavilion for the Queen Victoria Gardens, in the centre of Melbourne’s Southbank Arts Precinct.

An event hub, a meeting place and an invitation to experiment, each MPavilion brings creative collaborators together to present a free, four-month program of talks, workshops and performances from October to February. MPavilion’s 2015/16 program has been put together by Creative Director and CEO Robert Buckingham in collaboration with Associate Producer Jessie French, Creative Associate Natalie King, and Dan Honey and Emma Telfer of Office for Good Design.

Open every day except New Year’s Day from 6 October 2015 until 7 February 2016. Free admission.

[Images courtesy of MPavilion. Photography by John Gollings.]