Since 2014, 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 is the seventh leading international architect to have his first work in Australia commissioned by MPavilion, the country’s foremost annual architecture commission and design festival.

Public access to Tadao Ando’s MPavilion in Queen Victoria Gardens has been extended for another year and the pavilion will play host to MPavilion Season 11, running from November through March 2025.

“We’ve been thrilled to see visitors of all ages and from far and wide flock to MPavilion, curious to experience what Tadao Ando, an extraordinary master of design, has created for Melbourne. Being in the pavilion, looking across water and out to the green of the surrounding parklands has an immediate and unique calming effect, a slowing down amidst the fast pace of contemporary life,” said Naomi Milgrom AC. “The pavilion has seen myriad curated and informal activities this last summer, from pilates and picnics to drawing, photography and more. Engaging in great architecture and design enriches our city and our lives, and means even more of the community can now enjoy these moments for another year.”

When asked about the brief, Tadao Ando commented:

“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. Eternal, not in material or structure, but in the memory of a landscape that will continue to live in people’s hearts.”

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

Born in 1941 in Osaka, Japan, Tadao Ando is a self-taught architect and established Tadao Ando Architect & Associates in 1969. Throughout his career, Ando has received many awards and accolades including the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 1995, the 8th Praemium Imperiale in 1996, and the 2002 American Institute of Architects Gold Medal.

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).

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.