The Naomi Milgrom Foundation has announced that the fifth annual MPavilion will be designed by Spanish architect and educator Carme Pinós.
Over a four-month period, the architect-designed summer pavilion presents a free program of talks, meets, music and projects in Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Gardens. Today’s announcement follows the conclusion of the 2017-18 MPavilion season, which was presented in a pavilion designed by Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten of Netherlands-based practice OMA.
Pinós is the founder and director of Barcelona-based practice Estudio Carme Pinós, and is known globally for her urban refurbishments, social housing, public works and furniture design.
Commenting on the commission for MPavilion 2018, Pinós says:
“It is my honour and pleasure to have this opportunity to design a new pavilion for the Naomi Milgrom Foundation. It is a great responsibility to create a unique place in this special park with views over Melbourne—a city to which I have deep attachments. I am inspired by the fact that this new project will become a cultural destination for the city.”
Among Pinós’ most significant works are the Department Building of the Vienna University of Economics and Business (Austria), the Cube II Towers in Guadalajara (Mexico), the Caixaforum Cultural and Exhibition Centre in Zaragoza (Spain), and the metro station Zona Universitària and the Crematorium in the Igualada Cemetery, both in Barcelona.
Cube II Towers in Guadalajara (Mexico) by Estudio Carme Pinós. Image: Supplied
Crematorium in the Igualada Cemetery (Barcelona) by Estudio Carme Pinós. Photography by Jesús Arenas
She has also made significant contributions to advance gender equity in the field of architecture with a large body of work exhibiting a genuine commitment to community. In acknowledgment, Pinós received the Berkeley-Rupp Architecture Professorship and Prize in 2016.
Other awards she has received include the Richard J. Neutra Medal for Professional Excellence (2016), the Creu de Sant Jordi Medal (2015) by the Catalan Government for her cultural and social services, and the First Prize at the Spanish Biennial of Architecture (2008).
“Carme’s remarkable work honours the responsibility of architecture to serve a community, by creating spaces that place human experience and environment at the centre of her designs,” says Naomi Milgrom AO, chair of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation.
“Her approach to architecture, social housing and community reflects MPavilion’s ongoing desire to stimulate debate about the role of design and architecture in building creative and equitable cities and communities.”
Previous pavilions have been designed by Bijoy Jain of Studio Mumbai (2016), Amanda Levete of AL_A (2015), and Sean Godsell of Sean Sean Godsell Architects (2014).
