MPavilion 2015 Will Be a Forest of Dreams

Render courtesy of AL_A.

AL_A, head up by Amanda Levete, have revealed their designs for this year’s MPavilion. The award-winning British architecture firm, whose projects include Tokyo’s Comme des Garçons flagship boutique and Birmingham’s Selfridges, have created a structure that responds to the weather and blends in with its natural surrounds.

Housed in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens, the roof of the building mimics a forest canopy. The canopy is constructed from translucent petals — 3m and 5m in diameter but only 3mm thick — which are supported by thin columns that move with the wind. The petals have been developed in collaboration with an Australian boatbuilding specialist, and are made using an ultra-thin carbon composite and carbon fibre. They also double as amplifiers, and, adding to the forest feel, cast delicate leaf-like shadows onto the pavilion’s floor. At night, LED lights will give off a subtle glow.

“Amanda imagines MPavilion 2015 as a forest of dreams created in light weight materials and strengthened by carbon fibre that creates a sound and light show each evening. Amanda’s design is open, flexible and delicate. It mimics the canopy of a copse of trees and encourages us to experience nature and weather,” Naomi Milgrom, Chair of Naomi Milgrom Foundation who commissioned Amanda Levete to design the pavilion, tells The Creators Project.

Now in its second year, the MPavilion project aims to showcase the best in global architecture while acting as a physical space to host a programme of events (soon to be announced).

MPavilion opens on October 5, 2015 and runs until February 7, 2016.

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