MPavilion Parkville

Artful encounters in the park

MPavilion Parkville returns in Semester 1 2025, setting University Square humming with creativity! From resonant soundscapes and playful illustrations to hands-on workshops and experimental performances, the pavilion will come alive with movement, voices and ideas. This season, we invite you to feel the good vibrations of jazz compositions, gong rituals, acoustic experiments and study sessions in the sun.

Free and open to all, MPavilion Parkville is your space to create, collaborate and contemplate.

A group of performers are lifting up a white piece of fabric in front of an outdoor pavilion

Semester 1 Program

Program Highlights

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Our Location

Find us in University Square, Leicester Street, Parkville.

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Getting Here

MPavilion is in a central location on the Parkville Campus, with good access provided by multiple bike lanes. There are over 2,100 bicycle parks available at the Parkville campus, 300 of which are in secure bicycle hubs.

Catch any tram that travels along Swanston Street and alight at Lincoln Square. Alternatively, catch Route 19 and alight at Stop 11.

Public parking is available at three locations within the Parkville campus. The closest car park is University Square Car Park. Plan your visit.

A photograph of a group of young people performing the same dance move dressed in street-style clothing

MPavilion Parkville

MPavilion Parkville, designed by Glenn Murcutt AO, is a new community space in the heart of the University’s Parkville precinct, hosting an annual program of free, interactive, and engaging cultural events. Located outdoors, in a flexible, covered space, MPavilion Parkville’s artistic program takes inspiration from its architecture and environment, focusing on activities including talks, performances, hands-on creative workshops, artist residencies, gatherings and celebrations. Everyone – whether students, academics or local communities – is invited to drop in and discuss, develop, make, break, listen, workshop and share.

MPavilion

MPavilion is an initiative of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation and is supported by the City of Melbourne and the Victorian State Government through Creative Victoria. It is Australia’s leading architecture commission—a cultural laboratory where the community can come together to engage and share. Each year since 2014, the Naomi Milgrom Foundation has commissioned an architect to design a pavilion for the Queen Victoria Gardens. The MPavilion then presents a free program season of cultural events and activations. At the close of each season, the MPavilion is gifted by the Foundation to the people of Victoria and relocated to a new home.

Find out more about the project at mpavilion.org

Aerial shot of Mpavilion building in garden setting at sunset

History

The MPavilion 2019 by Glenn Murcutt AO was first presented at Southbank’s Queen Victoria Gardens. Thanks to a generous philanthropic cultural gift from the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, it now has a new home in University Square, on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung People of the Eastern Kulin nation.

Often referenced as Australia’s most famous architect, Glenn is the only Australian recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize (2002) and in 2021, received the Praemium Imperiale, a global arts prize awarded annually by the Emperor of Japan. Glenn is internationally recognised for environmentally sensitive and responsible designs with a distinctive Australian character.

MPavilion Parkville is available to the University of Melbourne and the wider community as a vibrant space for hire within the green surroundings of University Square. With included furniture and AV equipment, and retractable walls to protect from inclement weather, it’s a unique and refreshing space to host talks, community events, workshops and more.