25XDesign launch

Photo by The Good Copy

Head to MPavilion at high noon and join London Design Festival director Ben Evans and Google Creative Lab director Tom Uglow for the launch of 25XDesign. Conceived by Ben and developed by Google’s Creative Lab, it’s an interactive digital event created to celebrate design and place.

MPavilion’s 2015 architect Amanda Levete has contributed her 25 Melbourne design inspirations—from Ugo Rondinone’s ‘Our Magic Hour’ in South Yarra to Walter Burley Griffin’s imposing Newman College façade and Napier Waller’s 1933 Newspaper House mosaic—to be displayed and experienced in 360 degrees. Whether you’re here in the gardens, at your desk, winging over some far-flung ocean or wandering the city—you’re invited to jump into your browser and take the virtual tour.

Launching first at MPavilion as part of our 2015/16 season, 25XDesign uses an experimental platform called Story Spheres, developed by Google’s Creative Lab. Story Spheres takes a 360-degree image and overlays it with audio files so that, for the first time, you can experience MPavilion and other Melbourne design landmarks up, down and all around with sound. Story Spheres uses experimental browser technologies including webGL and 3js and can be viewed on desktop, mobile and through Google Cardboard—giving people a virtual-reality experience.

25XDesign will become an annual, virtual event on the MPavilion program, featuring a new Melbourne tour created by each year’s commissioned architect. The project aims to place MPavilion centrally but also expand its reach geographically. We look forward to seeing you at the launch and/or on the internet!