The Naomi Milgrom Foundation has announced that the commission for its 2021 MPavilion has been awarded to international architecture, urbanism and design practice, MAP studio (Venice). Led by architects Francesco Magnani and Traudy Pelzel, MAP studio (Venice) will reignite the flame of global collaboration at MPavilion with its iteration of Melbourne’s favourite cultural laboratory.
A project more than two years in the making, the MPavilion by MAP studio (Venice) was originally slated for construction in 2020, with progress being postponed as the world responded to the COVID-19 crisis. After adapting the logistics of its 2020 season to make programming as safe and flexible as possible throughout the pandemic—including hosting events online, across the existing pavilions of past seasons, and on the seventh floor of Parkade car park in Melbourne’s CBD—MPavilion can now recommence work with MAP studio (Venice) to bring their pavilion to fruition, and invite the community to reconnect at its original site in the Queen Victoria Gardens.
Naomi Milgrom AC, founder of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, commented: “We have followed the sensitive, deeply site-responsive work of MAP studio (Venice) for some time, and couldn’t be more excited to see their pavilion spring to life in our first season back in the Queen Victoria Gardens. In helping to reestablish and strengthen architectural dialogues between Melbourne and the rest of the world in the wake of the pandemic, this partnership with MAP studio (Venice) is a great source of pride and celebration for the Foundation and MPavilion.”
Francesco Magnani and Traudy Pelzel of MAP studio (Venice) responded to their commission for MPavilion 2021: “As an open-access, democratic space, MPavilion performs the crucial role of inviting people from all walks of life to engage in conversations around design, architecture and culture, and take an active part in the meaningful development of their own civic spaces. MAP studio (Venice) is honoured to play such an important role in the cultural life of Melbourne and the reanimation of its city centre after lockdown. We thank the Naomi Milgrom Foundation for this wonderful opportunity to reopen the channels of creative exchange between our cities.”
Located at Palazzo Foscarini in the historic centre of Venice, MAP studio (Venice) is a young and exciting practice that considers architecture to be a process of constant dialogue, between client and creative, past and present, environment and inhabitant. Founded in 2010, MAP studio (Venice) is renowned for its considerate, deeply site-responsive work—a quality that will be especially significant as MPavilion 2021 takes shape at its original home on Boon Wurrung land in the Queen Victoria Gardens.
