MPavilion 2021 - The Lightcatcher
MPavilion 2021 - The Lightcatcher
MAP studio, MPavilion
ARCHITECTS
MAP studio, MPavilion
BUDGET
$500K - 1M
SIZE
0 sqft - 1000 sqft
YEAR
2021
LOCATION
Melbourne, Australia
TYPE
Cultural › Pavilion
MPavilion is Australia’s leading architectural commission and design event, created by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation. Annually, a temporary pavilion is designed and erected in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens.
Over the summer, it hosts a program of over 400 free events, performances and installations to encourage design debate and cultural exchange. MPavilion 2021 was designed by MAP studio (Venice) architects Francesco Magnani & Traudy Pelzel.
MAP studio imagined MPavilion 2021 as a shimmering device, a form of urban lighthouse intended to illuminate MPavilion’s diverse, varied and inclusive programming.
Dubbed The Lightcatcher, the pavilion’s geometric abstraction and kaleidoscopic structure reflect and amplify the everchanging landscape, colour, activities and people that surround it.
The Lightcatcher’s design comprises a reticular steel structure in galvanized and painted tubular profiles that house a set of panels in a mirror-finish aluminium coating,
The three-dimensional lattice is supported by four u-shaped pillars made of precast reinforced concrete, which can also be used as seating.
The MPavilion 2021 structure appears to float above the ground, suspended above a bright canary yellow, organically-shaped surface. A circular kiosk is used to provide hospitality to visitors.
MAP studio is renowned for responding to existing sites in a sensitive and celebratory way, and this approach has been especially poignant with MPavilion 2021.
A project more than two years in the making, the structure was originally slated for construction in 2020, with progress postponed as the world responded to the global pandemic.
Sitting magnificently in the Queen Victoria Gardens The Lightcatcher truly reenergized and reinvigorated Melbourne’s creative and cultural life.
With its playful design, vibrant colour palette and iridescent quality MPavilion 2021 stood as a beacon of joy and renewed hope, evoking a sense delight among all who crossed its path.
