Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
MPavilion, created by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, is a leading architectural commission and host to one of Australia’s most visited and important design festivals. Annually, an internationally acclaimed architect is engaged to design an experimental pavilion in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens. Over the summer, it hosts a five-month season of free public programs including talks, music, dance, performance, and kid-friendly workshops, among many other design-focused events. To celebrate a symbolic milestone in this decade long project of architectural excellence, prolific Japanese architect Tadao Ando was invited to design MPavilion 10.
MPavilion by Tadao Ando Architect & Associates, won an 2025 International Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
For his first ever project in Australia, the design of MPavilion 10 is a true reflection of Ando’s signature geometric interventions and precise use of concrete. Conceived as a dynamic meeting place within Melbourne’s cultural and arts precinct, Ando’s design for MPavilion 10 encapsulates his desire to create a memorable structure that responds directly to its environment. Ando describes his design as a blank canvas, “an architecture of emptiness, that in its silence lets light and breeze enter and breathe life into it. A place that resonates with the environment, becomes one with the garden, and blossoms with infinite creativity.”
A testament to spatial purity, Ando’s MPavilion 10 is a balanced symphony of geometry and nature, utilising circles and squares to create a space in perfect harmony with its surrounds. A 14.4-metre aluminium-clad disc, resting on a central concrete column, serves as the pavilion’s canopy, while offset squares create two entrances that lead to the centre of the pavilion. Concrete walls of varying lengths partially enclose the space evoking a tranquil sanctuary reminiscent of a traditional Japanese walled garden. Long horizontal openings running both the length of the north and south walls provide framed views of downtown Melbourne and the lush greenery of Queen Victoria Gardens, establishing a visual dialogue connecting the cityscape and parklands to MPavilion’s interior. The pure geometric forms and symmetry are reinforced by an internal arrangement that is half paved, and half reflecting pool, creating a mesmerizing mirroring of the pavilion canopy, sky, city, and bordering nature.
Ando’s serene and contemplative design for MPavilion 10, serves as the perfect backdrop for Melbourne’s community to come together to engage in dialogue, exchange ideas, create connections and reflect on the urgent urban and civic concerns of today. Over the course of a 134-day season in 2023, the MPavilion 10 project welcomed more than 120,000 visitors and engaged 300 collaborators to produce over 230 free events. Thus, Ando’s desire for the pavilion to be a living memory beyond the physical structure by “creating a sense of eternity within Melbourne. An experience that will last forever in the hearts of all who visit” is fulfilled.
Architects: Tadao Ando Architect & Associates
Design Team: Tadao Ando, Kazutoshi Miyamura, and Chisato Kodaira
Executive Architects: Sean Godsell Architects
General Contractor: Kane Constructions, LLC.
Client: Naomi Milgrom Foundation
Photographers: Rory Gardiner, Luke Ray, Marie-Luise Skibbe, William Hamilton-Coates, Michael Pham, and Rick Clifford
