Amanda Levete to Design Next MPavilion

John Hill

9. April 2015

V&A Museum, London (Image courtesy of AL_A)

The organizers of MPavilion have announced that AL_A, the studio of British architect Amanda Levete, has been selected to design the second annual pavilion for Melbourne's Queen Victoria Memorial Gardens.

Details on the design will not be unveiled until early spring, but in the video below Levete drops some hints as to its character: "What we want to do is design a structure that somehow responds to the weather...envisaged as a forest canopy." Further, she is considering the pavilion at night: "We want to create this aura, this glow on the roof canopy when you see it from above."

Levete started AL_A in 2009, born from the dissolution of Future Systems the year before. Together with the late Jan Kaplický, Future Systems was best known for the futuristic-looking design of Selfridges department store completed in Birmingham in 2003. Levete and her fellow AL_A directors Ho-Yin Ng, Alice Dietsch, and Max Arrocet have continued on a similar trajectory with cultural and commercial projects under construction in London, Lisbon and Bangkok.

Levete's MPavilion follows Australian architect Sean Godsell's inaugural pavilion, which has just been gifted to the Hellenic Museum. Levete's MPavilion will be on display in Melbourne's Queen Victoria Memorial Gardens from 5 October 2015 to 7 February 2016.