A new season of MPavilion has opened, the third to be held within Tadao Ando’s quiet and exacting contribution to Melbourne. For us at Davidov, the pavilion carries a particular resonance. Circle|Square, the winning chair design we created for the program, has lived within this space for three years now. It has been a privilege to watch people inhabit the pavilion, to watch it reveal itself in different seasons, and to return again and again with a mixture of familiarity and anticipation.
I have visited this place at many times and in many states. In the brightness of morning when the concrete seems almost weightless. At night when the pond becomes a mirror of the city. On busy afternoons filled with chatter and on quiet days where the air seems to hold the structure still. Yet returning tonight, on a mild spring evening with the sun low and the water pushing its rippled reflections along the concrete walls, the building felt new again. Something had shifted, or perhaps I had. The space carried a clarity that was both unexpected and profound.
As a musical performance unfolded, the architecture insisted on being noticed. The pattern of the spacer bar blanks, deliberate and unwavering, established a rhythm that shaped the atmosphere as much as the sound. The slot window, impossibly thin, impossibly long, impossibly straight, cut a single uncompromising line toward the garden. Through it, the landscape became a curated fragment, a reminder of Ando’s belief that to frame nature is to honour it.
For a pavilion, it offers little in the way of shelter. The breeze moves freely across the water. Rain, when it arrives, is felt as much as seen. Yet this absence of protection is not a deficiency. It is the architectural proposition. The structure defines space with walls, openings, and a singular cylindrical core, but it never fully closes. Instead it choreographs thresholds. It separates paving from pond with the certainty of a diagram, while the surrounding trees and even the skyscrapers seem to lean toward the interior as if curious about what is taking place within.
This is Ando’s restraint at its most distilled. Every line, every surface, every void is doing only what it must and nothing more. The discipline is intense. The effect is calming. The lessons are ongoing.
Each visit to the pavilion reveals yet another insight into how Ando crafts space. And in this new season, as the pavilion begins its next cycle of performances, conversations, and quiet moments, it is an opportunity to be reminded of why architecture matters. More than offering shelter, it is because of its ability to frame the way we view our environment and our place within it.
