Today, the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, a Melbourne, Australia–based nonprofit that supports public architecture and design projects, announced that Spanish architect Carme Pinós, Hon. FAIA, founder of Estudio Carme Pinós, will design the fifth-annual MPavilion at the Queen Victoria Gardens in Melbourne, Australia. The project marks the first public commission by a female Spanish architect in Australia.
The news follows the official closing of MPavilion 2017 on Feb.11, designed and constructed by Rem Koolhaas, Hon. FAIA, co-founder of Netherlands-based architecture firm OMA, and David Gianotten, the managing partner–architect of the firm. The temporary structure—which hosted 477 free events and attracted more than 117,000 visitors over a duration of five months—was inspired by the form of ancient amphitheaters and featured a floating roof.
“It is my honor and pleasure to have this opportunity to design a new pavilion for the Naomi Milgrom Foundation,” Pinós said in a press release by the 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.”
Pinós established her eponymous Barcelona, Spain–based firm in 1991, after having launched an international career together with late Spanish architect Enric Miralles. Since then, she has focused on community planning via urban planning, social housing projects, and designing public spaces as well as educational facilities. In 2016, Pinós was awarded the Berkeley-Rupp Architecture Professorship and Prize by the University of California, Berkeley, which gives “$100,000 to a distinguished design practitioner or academic who has made a significant contribution to advancing gender equity in architecture, and whose work emphasizes a commitment to sustainability and community,” according to the university.
Her impressive portfolio includes projects such as the Department Building of the Vienna University of Economics and Business (2013) and the Auditorium and Cultural Center at the Caixaforum Museum (2014) in Zaragoza, Spain. In addition to Pinós’ built projects, her scale-model work has been acquired by the likes of the Centre Pompidou in Paris and New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
“Carme’s remarkable work honors the responsibility of architecture to serve a community, by creating spaces that place human experience and environment at the center of her designs,” said Naomi Milgrom, in a press release. “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.
Started in 2014, the MPavilion hosts more than 400 free events each year, including talks and public lectures, workshops, kids events, and musical performances. The 2018 MPavilion will open to the public on Oct. 8.
