MELBOURNE.- The Naomi Milgrom Foundation has announced Melbourne-based Davidov Architects, with a team comprised of Wendy Chen, Robert Davidov and Ben Schmideg, as the MPavilion 10 Chair Commission winner. Pritzker Prize Laureate and MPavilion 10 architect Tadao Ando selected their Circle|Square concept from nearly 100 submissions – the most in MPavilion history.

A highlight of every MPavilion edition, the Chair Commission this year anchors 10 creative commissions across visual and performing arts, fashion and design in celebration of MPavilion’s milestone year. Integral to the free five-month design festival, the Chair Commission will be onsite for all to use when MPavilion opens in the Queen Victoria Gardens on November 15, 2023.

"It was an honor and great fun to select the winner of the MPavilion 10 Chair Commission competition," said Tadao Ando. "Davidov’s concept shares my fascination with the geometry of circles and squares and is responsive to the pavilion’s design."

"We congratulate Davidov Architects on winning the MPavilion Chair Commission and for their deep consideration in responding to Tadao Ando’s design,’ said Naomi Milgrom AC, commissioner of MPavilion. ‘We look forward to seeing the visual synergies between the square footprint of the pavilion, its circular canopy and the square footprint of the stool with its circular seat. The Foundation is grateful for the thought and care so many established and emerging designers put into their submissions. Despite a tight brief, we saw scores of highly creative and captivating designs."

The Davidov Architects team stated, "We hope our simple pine stool is seen by visitors as approachable but also in line with the architectural context and expression of Tadao Ando’s powerful MPavilion 10 design. The Circle|Square rejects notions of decoration, focusing instead on natural materials and legibility of form. The carved curved seat and exclusive use of locally sourced timber echo the pavilion’s focus on simplicity, while adding familiarity and warmth."

From the almost 100 responses to MPavilion’s brief to create a lightweight, durable chair for an outdoor setting with a focus on sustainability, three entries were shortlisted; congratulations to Gaby Miègeville-Little and Dalton Stewart & Shalini Rautela for being selected by Tadao Ando as finalists. The remaining nine, yet-to-be-revealed commissions for this MPavilion season include the annual uniform and the next composition in the MPavilion Song Cycle by Deborah Cheetham AO, among others.

Naomi Milgrom AC & the Naomi Milgrom Foundation 

The Naomi Milgrom Foundation champions art, design and architecture that improves Australian lives – empowering creation, collaboration and education. Established in 2014 by Naomi Milgrom AC, the not-for-profit organisation pivots on a central purpose: to enhance the presence and influence of creative culture in Australia. This is accomplished through the active support of artists, designers and creative institutions; the fostering of collaborations between bodies and disciplines; the promotion of art and design education; and an overarching commitment to increasing access to the arts.

The Naomi Milgrom Foundation’s ongoing flagship projects include MPavilion and the Living Cities Forum. It proudly supports extraordinary projects with extraordinary creators that would otherwise not be realised, spanning architecture and urban design fora; art, design and music commissions; art and design exhibitions; education, research and publication projects; dance and music performances; First Nations cultural projects; and theatre productions.

Naomi Milgrom AC is an Australian business leader, fashion entrepreneur, philanthropist and arts patron with an international reputation for initiating and supporting cultural innovation. In 2020, she was awarded the country’s highest honour – the Companion of the Order of Australia – for eminent service to the community through philanthropic leadership and support for the promotion of the arts.

MPavilion 

MPavilion is Australia's leading architecture commission: a place for debate around the design of today and tomorrowl. Conceived and created by Naomi Milgrom AC as an initiative of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, MPavilion celebrates a decade as the country’s cultural laboratory in 2023.

Since 2014, the Naomi Milgrom Foundation has invited extraordinary architects from Australia and across the world to design a meeting place for the Queen Victoria Gardens in Melbourne’s heart. From this MPavilion, a five-month design festival of free events is launched – prompting locals and visitors alike to consider how architecture, art and design can change lives. When its season draws to a close, the Naomi Milgrom Foundation gifts each MPavilion to the people of Victoria – relocating it to a permanent home in the community where it can remain as a catalyst for conversation.

In its first decade, MPavilion has become one of Australia’s most anticipated design festivals – attracting over 1,250,000 visitors, with 350,000 in 2022 alone. Accessible and open, MPavilion is both of and for the community: hosting 3,400 events with 4,000 individuals and organisations during this period. It has been shortlisted for or won more than 40 national and international design and architecture awards and commendations, including: Jury Winner, Architizer A+Awards in the ‘Architecture+Colour’ category (2023); Winner of Urban Developer Awards for Industry Excellence in the ‘Excellence in Community Engagement’ category (2022); Winner of the Good Design Awards Gold Accolade in the ‘Architectural Design – Urban Design and Public Spaces’ category (2019); Winner of the Australian Institute of Landscape Awards – ‘Landscape Architecture Award’ (2018); Designboom’s ‘World’s Top Temporary Structures for 2016’; and Winner of Detail Magazine’s  ‘DETAIL PRIZE 2016’, among many others.

Past architects include: Rachaporn Choochuey, all(zone), Thailand (MPavilion 9); Francesco Magnani and Traudy Pelzel, MAP Studio, Venice (MPavilion 8); Glenn Murcutt, Australia (MPavilion 6); Carme Pinós, Estudio Carme Pinós, Barcelona (MPavilion 5), Rem Koolhaas and David Gianotten, OMA, Netherlands (MPavilion 4); Bijoy Jain, Studio Mumbai, India (MPavilion 3); Amanda Levete, AL_A, United Kingdom (MPavilion 2); Sean Godsell, Sean Godsell Architects, Australia (MPavilion 1).