Spanish architect Carme Pinós is set to design the fifth annual MPavilion, marking the first public commission by a Spanish female architect in Australia.

Pinós set up her own studio in 1991, and has worked on a wide range of projects from urban refurbishments and public works to furniture design.

Speaking to ADR about how she will approach the 2018 design, Pinós said she would go into the project “starting with a negative”.

“I know everything I do not want. Each project is an adventure in which, at the beginning, I do not know where I am heading, but I know where I do not want to go. I come at the site with questions that arise from the client’s requirements and from what the place wants.

“I often say that an architect’s role is more like a cinema director’s than a sculptor’s. The sculptor creates shapes; the movie director constructs experiential stories. An architect builds volumes and through them must bring a story to life, meaning you have to know the screenplay very well.”

Some of Pinós most significant projects include the Departments Building of the Vienna University of Economics and Business (Austria), the Cube II Towers in Guadalajara (Mexico), the Caixaforum Cultural and Exhibition Centre in Zaragoza (Spain), the metro station Zona Universitaria in Barcelona and the Crematorium in the Igualada Cemetery (Spain).

Naomi Milgrom AO, founder of the Naomi Milgrom Foundation, who commissioned  Pinós to design MPavilion 2018, commented: “Carme’s remarkable work honours the responsibility of architecture to serve a community, by creating spaces that place human experience and environment at the centre of her designs.

“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.”

Pinós is also known for making significant contributions to advance gender equity in the field of architecture.

“I was honoured to receive the 2016 Berkeley-Rupp Architecture Professorship and Prize which recognises an individual’s contribution to promoting the advancement of women in the field of architecture and commitment to the community,” she adds. “There are very few women leading architectural firms at this time and it is timely that gender equality is at the forefront of international discussion particularly in architecture.”

MPavilion 2018 will open free to the public on 8 October 2018.

MPavilion 2017, which was designed by OMA (Office for Metropolitan Architecture), engaged more than 475 collaborators including cultural institutions, architects, artists, musicians, dancers, choreographers, scientists and designers to develop the four-month free cultural program.