Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten of OMA have unveiled renderings for the 2017 MPavilion in Melbourne, Australia. The pavilion, which will open October 3rd, will host four months of architecture and design programs, including talks, workshops, performances, and installations, and the duo have worked to conceptualize a structure that offers itself up to infinite variations. The international practice, whose most recent designs include the gilded Prada Foundation and the expansion of the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, meets the MPavilion brief of creating a flexible civic space –a space that, according to OMA, can be a performance in and of itself.
Located in the Queen Victoria Gardens, this year’s pavilion—commissioned by Australian nonprofit the Naomi Milgrom Foundation—comes equipped to handle any number of performances and events. It was designed with versatility in mind, offering a multitude of configurations that play with the relationship between audience and performers. The circular ampitheater contains a pair of timber grandstands, one of which can be rotated according to each event’s demands. A floating translucent roof, supported by an aluminum steel grid, will let in sunlight while concealing technical equipment. The entire setup is ensconced in layers of greenery, which includes twelve different species of Australian flowers in a graceful homage to the amphitheater’s context.
“We hope to provoke a real discussion about what architecture can do in a country like Australia,” said Koolhaas in a video announcement. “Through a very small thing like a pavilion, you might inject a certain amount of intensity.”
Now in its fourth edition, the MPavilion has sourced adaptable designs for past pavilions from Sean Godsell, AL_A’s Amanda Levete, and Studio Mumbai’s Bijoy Jain.
