The making of MPavilion 2015

Photo by Benjamin Hosking

“How could we create the feeling, the experience, the sensation of a tree canopy, but in a completely abstract way, with man-made materials?” In an interview for Architectural Review, Amanda Levete talked about some of the thinking and collaboration that went into AL_A’s MPavilion design. Watch the video here—and then join us for a trilogy of lunchtime conversations about this year’s MPavilion construction, and the unique puzzles faced along the way.

Key players from the brief-to-build team—including MPavilion’s Robert Buckingham, Jessie French and Sam Redston, Arup’s Brendon McNiven, Kane Constructions’ Tony Isaacson and landscape designer Paul Bangay (who lent his green thumbs to MPavilion’s flower beds and perennial borders)—will talk us through their material, technological and botanical decisions, offering us a behind-the-scenes look at everything that goes into designing, building and wiring up a high-tech, weather-responsive and modular temporary structure.

Why did Paul choose to plant salvia around AL_A’s structure? How did engineers from Arup tackle the design challenge of seamlessly incorporating sound and light? And how do Sam and the MPavilion production team make sure our nightly Sunset Ritual plays at the exact moment of sundown each evening? Pull up a pew under the (thirteen big and thirty small) petals on the first three Tuesdays in December, and discover the ins and outs of AL_A’s enchanting and boundary-pushing digital forest canopy.

Tuesday 1 December, 1pm
—Robert Buckingham, creative director, MPavilion
—Brendon McNiven, principal, Arup

Tuesday 8 December, 1pm
—Jessie French, associate producer, MPavilion
—Sam Redston, technology and production, MPavilion

Tuesday 15 December, 1pm
—Robert Buckingham, creative director, MPavilion
—Tony Isaacson, managing director, Kane Constructions
—Paul Bangay, landscape designer