Monash

2017 MPavilion at Monash University

By Rem Koolhaas & David Gianotten of OMA
MPavilion 2017


26 Ancora Imparo Way,
Clayton VIC 3800

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How to get to us

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By Public Transport

Monash MPavilion is a short walk from the Monash University Clayton Bus Loop where numerous PTV buses stop. The Monash inter-campus shuttle buses from Monash Caulfield campus and Monash Peninsula campus also stop at the Monash University Clayton Bus Loop.

If you’re travelling from the city, you can catch the Pakenham or Cranbourne train line to Huntingdale Station and then catch either the 601 Shuttle Bus, 630 to Monash University or 900 to Stud Park SC (Rowville).

By Bike

Secure your bike to one of the many racks nearby the Monash MPavilion. Please refer to the Monash Clayton map for the location of bike racks.

Parking

Limited parking is available directly next to the Monash MPavilion. This parking is only available for general use between 4:30PM and 8:30am on weekdays, and all day on weekends.

Metred parking is available in the nearby South East Carpark. Please refer to the Monash Clayton map for the location of metred parking.

Disabled parking bays are available directly next to the Monash MPavilion. If the disabled parking bays are full, you can then park in any red, yellow, or blue permit spaces, ensuring you display your disability permit.

Access

The Monash MPavilion is wheelchair accessible.

The nearest toilet facilities are just across the road at 29 Ancora Imparo Way, including an accessible bathroom on the ground floor.

The closest all-gender bathroom is located on the Ground Floor of the Learning and Teaching building, 19 Ancora Imparo Way (2 minutes walk from the Monash MPavilion). For a list of all the all-gender toilets on-campus visit the Monash University website.

 

MPAVILION 2017
OMA / REM KOOLHAAS & DAVID GIANOTTEN

 

MPavilion 2017 is designed by Netherlands–based architects Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten of OMA.

Taking its cues from the ancient amphitheatre, MPavilion 2017 blurs the lines between inside and outside, in a skilful yet empathetic manipulation of the surrounding landscape in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens. OMA’s MPavilion seeks not only to employ the qualities of the amphitheatre, but to build on them, bringing to life a flexible space that can function as both stage and playground.

Comprising a circular wooden amphitheatre with a rotatable component, MPavilion allows interaction from all angles — the pavilion opens up to the backdrop of the Melbourne skyline. With an exterior clad in bright and saturated local flora, the structure integrates with the landscape, contrasting with the excavated amphitheatre inside. Overhead, an aluminium cladded steel grid supports a translucent roof to shield visitors from the elements while still allowing sunlight to permeate.

Architectural project team: Laurence Bolhaar, Paul Jones, Miguel Taborda, Eve Hocheng and Fedor Medek. 


Architects’ Statement

“MPavilion 2017 is a public venue on an intimate scale. Located in the Queen Victoria Gardens in the centre of Melbourne’s Southbank Arts Precinct, MPavilion intends to draw the community in and act as a cultural laboratory. OMA has designed a temporary structure that, along with providing space for performances, entertainment and events, can also perform itself. MPavilion’s ground plan is shaped by two grandstands – one fixed, the other movable. Together they determine the setup of the performance space. The larger static grandstand is excavated from the surrounding landscape and embedded in twelve different species of indigenous plants, giving a sense of the Australian setting. The smaller grandstand can rotate, allowing it to shift functions from seating to stage, blurring the distinction between performer and audience. As one complete structure, the sum of its parts, the pavilion becomes a modern-day amphitheatre, one that mixes the spectator and the spectacle.

The main infrastructure of the pavilion, adorned with lighting and hanging points, is within the floating roof, a two-metre-high mechanical grid structure made of aluminium-clad steel. The mechanical functions of the canopy can be activated to suit the type of event taking place; it is an open-air venue for performances, entertainment and sports. Existing of both static and dynamic elements, the pavilion allows for many configurations and can generate unexpected programming, echoing the ideals of the typology of the amphitheatre. With the city as a backdrop, the pavilion provokes discussion on Melbourne, its development and its surroundings.”


 About OMA / Rem Koolhaas & David Gianotten

OMA is an international practice operating within the traditional boundaries of architecture and urbanism. Led by nine partners, including MPavilion 2017 architects Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten – plus Ellen van Loon, Reinier de Graaf, Shohei Shigematsu, Iyad Alsaka, Chris van Duijn, Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli, Jason Long – OMA maintains offices across the world in in Rotterdam, New York, Beijing, Hong Kong, Doha, Dubai and Perth.

Rem Koolhaas founded OMA in 1975 together with Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp. After graduating from the Architectural Association in London, in 1978 he published Delirious New York: A Retroactive Manifesto for Manhattan; in 1995, his book S,M,L,XL summarised the work of OMA in “a novel about architecture”. Currently, he leads both OMA and AMO – the research arm of OMA, operating in areas beyond the realm of architecture, including media, politics, renewable energy and fashion. Rem is also a professor at Harvard University, where he conducts the Project on the City, a research program investigating changing urban conditions around the world. In 2014, he was director of the 14th International Architecture Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, entitled ‘Fundamentals’.

David Gianotten is managing partner–architect of OMA, overseeing the management, business strategy and growth of the company worldwide. As partner-in-charge he also oversees the design and construction of various projects, including the Taipei Performing Arts Centre; the masterplan of Feyenoord City and the new Stadium Feyenoord; the KataOMA resort in Bali and more recently the New Museum for Western Australia. As acting partner-in-charge of OMA’s Hong Kong, Beijing and Perth offices, and the director of OMA Asia, David leads OMA’s Asia-Pacific portfolio. While stationed in Hong Kong, he was responsible for the Shenzhen Stock Exchange headquarters, completed in 2013; the final stages of the CCTV headquarters in Beijing; and OMA’s conceptual masterplan for the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong. David is also one of two directors at the recently opened OMA branch office in Australia.