MPavilion welcomes Pritzker Prize Laureate Tadao Ando as our MPavilion 10 designer.

Over the past decade, MPavilion has worked with the world’s most significant architectural thinkers to create a space for engagement with urgent urban, civic and design concerns. Tadao Ando will mark the seventh international architect to have their first work in Australia commissioned for MPavilion.

‘Each year, we commission architects with a unique design language and social purpose, giving them complete freedom to realise their vision. I’ve long admired how Tadao Ando responds to and incorporates the particularity of a place in his design as well as his belief that architecture can shape a society,’ said Naomi Milgrom AC, founder of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation. ‘As MPavilion prepares to celebrate its first decade, we look forward to sharing Ando’s work in Australia for the first time and having his pavilion become a vital site for cultural and community life in Melbourne.”

One of Japan’s leading contemporary architects, Tadao Ando is a master of light known for his striking geometric interventions in nature. 

Among his many notable works are the Church of the Light (1989; Osaka, Japan), Pulitzer Arts Foundation (2001; St. Louis, USA), Chichu Art Museum (2004; Naoshima, Japan), 21-21 Design Sight (2007; Tokyo, Japan), and Bourse de Commerce—Pinault Collection (2020: Paris, France). With this commission, Tadao Ando joins a roster of distinguished architects carefully curated by the Naomi Milgrom Foundation to explore the intersection of design and contemporary culture.

Church of the Light. Photos by Mitsuo Matsuoka. Courtesy Tadao Ando Architect & Associates.

‘The design for the MPavilion began with a desire to find a scene of eternity within the public gardens of the Queen Victoria Gardens in Melbourne,’ shared Tadao Ando. ‘Eternal, not in material or structure, but in the memory of a landscape that will continue to live in people’s hearts.’

Pulitzer Arts Foundation. Photo by Mitsuo Matsuoka. Courtesy Tadao Ando Architect & Associates.

Born in 1941 in Osaka, Japan, Tadao Ando is a self-taught architect and established Tadao Ando Architect & Associates in 1969. He has received myriad awards and accolades over the course of his career, including the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1995, the 8th Praemium Imperiale in 2016 and the 2002 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal.

Ando also has an extensive career in architecture education. He taught as a visiting professor at Yale University, Columbia University and Harvard University, and in 1997 became a Professor at the University of Tokyo.

Chichu Art Museum / Naoshima. Photo by Mitsuo Matsuoka. Courtesy Tadao Ando Architect & Associates.