Melbourne: The Latest Architecture and News

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The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) has released its Global Liveability Index for 2025, assessing 173 cities worldwide across five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. This year, Copenhagen has taken the top position, ending Vienna's three-year run as the world's most liveable city. The Danish capital earned high scores in stability, education, and infrastructure, narrowly surpassing Vienna, which saw a decline in its stability rating following recent security incidents. The average global liveability score for 2025 remains steady at 76.1 out of 100, unchanged from 2024. While year-on-year improvements were recorded in healthcare, education, and infrastructure, these were offset by a continued decline in stability, driven by rising geopolitical tensions, civil unrest, and increased security threats in several regions.

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Every year, the Naomi Milgrom Foundation commissions an architect to design a temporary pavilion for the Queen Victoria Gardens, in the center of Melbourne's Southbank Arts Precinct. The pavilions are then transferred to the state of Victoria. The tenth edition of the MPavilion was designed by Pritzker Prize Laureate Tadao Ando as his first and only built work in Australia and the southern hemisphere. The pavilion opened on November 16, 2023, and its presence was extended until March 2025, hosting a wide-ranging program of cultural events over two summer seasons. After facing demolition, given the temporary nature of the initiative, a community-led program, "Preserve the Pavilion", was launched in hopes of preserving the building. The Naomi Milgrom Foundation has recently announced that the pavilion will remain in Queen Victoria Gardens until 2030, following a decision by the City of Melbourne.

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Located in the south of the "Land Down Under", Melbourne is a city that resists simplistic definitions. While refined Victorian façades confront graffiti-covered laneways, meticulously maintained public gardens coexist with former industrial warehouses transformed into cafés, studios, and cultural spaces. It is precisely in this contrast between deliberate planning and spontaneous appropriation that the architectural essence of the metropolis resides.

Its history begins with the Aboriginal Kulin people, who for millennia inhabited the banks of the Yarra River, developing complex systems of land management, spirituality, and social organization. With the arrival of British colonizers in 1835, the chapter of the modern city began, a process marked not only by urban growth and development but also by violence, forced displacement, and cultural erasure. The effects of this legacy are still felt today, even in the face of contemporary efforts toward recognition and reconciliation.

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