Expo 2025 Osaka

Since its inauguration this spring, Expo 2025 Osaka has captured global attention from multiple perspectives, demonstrating how architecture can function as a laboratory for exploring solutions to pressing challenges. After 55 years, Osaka is once again hosting the World Expo, with each installation organized around the sub-themes Saving Lives, Empowering Lives, and Connecting Lives. These pavilions take forms that express the identity and values of their region through distinctive architectural languages, forming the central axis of their design. Building on this foundation, some installations serve as laboratories for the future society, utilizing technology to enhance experiences both inside and outside the spaces, transforming the visit through light, sound, visuals, and movement as part of the technological innovation showcased at the event.

A structure built from marine plastic waste – This is a retail facility adjacent to the EXPO 2025 (Osaka, Kansai) Arena. Since the Expo site was constructed on coastal reclaimed land, it was proposed that an architectural structure be built by upcycling marine plastic waste. Marine plastic pollution severely impacts ecosystems worldwide and is recognized as a shared global issue. The aim of this architectural project is to promote the concept of a circular economy at the Expo site, where visitors from all over the world will gather. The building, including its foundation, is designed for easy assembly and disassembly with plans for relocation or reuse as furniture after the Expo concludes.

Under the main concept "Bhumipiman – the Land of Immunity", Thailand Pavilion at the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan will connect with the world so that everyone can experience the Thai "Bhumi" through the atmosphere of a land rich in resources, and a way of life that helps build immunity, enabling Thai people to be healthy both in body and mind. This building showcases Thailand's potential, from past to present, forging strong and sustainable connections with the wider world into the future.

The Colombia Pavilion at the Expo Osaka 2025 adopts the theme "ICE CUBE," inspired by the scene in Gabriel García Márquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude where a young boy encounters ice for the first time. Translating this literary reference into built form, the pavilion presents a facade of translucent cubes set at varying angles, creating a sense of movement and articulation. Designed by MORF Inc., with Karim Chahal as Project Director and Ko Oono as Principal Architect, the exterior is composed of semi-transparent polycarbonate panels integrated with color-controlled lighting, allowing the facade to transform in appearance throughout the day and night.

Since its opening in April, Expo Osaka has welcomed millions of visitors from around the world, standing as a true showcase of innovation, architecture, and design. Among its highlights is the Grand Ring, designed by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, considered the largest timber architectural structure in the world. Under the theme of Expo 2025 — “Designing Future Society for Our Lives”, along with Saving Lives, Empowering Lives, and Connecting Lives — more than 150 countries have used their pavilions to address key topics in contemporary architecture, such as circular construction, cultural memory, and innovation and technology aimed at shaping a sustainable built environment for the future.

As Expo 2025 Osaka passes the midpoint of its six-month duration on July 13, the international exposition continues to serve as a global platform for architectural experimentation, cultural exchange, and technological innovation. Officially opened on April 13 on the reclaimed island of Yumeshima, the event is organized under the theme "Designing Future Society for Our Lives," and has already welcomed more than 13 million visitors as of late July. Conceived as a space for collaboration across disciplines and borders, the Expo brings together more than 150 national, thematic, and corporate pavilions. 

From Heidi to high-tech: a showcase of Swiss collaborative innovation. The Swiss pavilion takes visitors on an immersive and interactive journey through collaborative innovation. Twenty years after the country's impactful participation in Aichi, the same commissioner general will inaugurate a fresh and dynamic programme under the title From Heidi to High-Tech. This narrative reflects Switzerland's evolution from its iconic Alpine heritage to a globally recognised hub of cutting-edge technology and innovation. Beloved by generations in Japan, the timeless figure of Heidi will serve as the pavilion's official mascot, embodying the spirit of friendship between the two nations. The Swiss Pavilion presents a unique opportunity to deepen the already strong bilateral ties, particularly as Japan stands as Switzerland's most significant partner in Asia for science and technology. This collaboration aims to inspire new exchanges with a forward-looking perspective.

Covering 3,500 square meters, the pavilion offers visitors a unique architectural and exhibition experience, showcasing the country’s innovation, culture, and productive activity. Over six months, companies, regional authorities, and other institutions will use their spaces for meetings, presentations, and forums. In this way, architecture becomes a strategic tool for international visibility.

"MANY YEARS LATER, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice." — G. García Márquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude (translated by Gregory Rabassa).

The building is a complex of small event spaces for the Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai: a theater for ceremonies and performances, an exhibition space for traditional crafts, and a restaurant/lounge. The theme of the Expo is "Designing Future Society for Our Lives," and the architecture is designed to resemble life, where sky, wind, water, and earth intertangle with each other.

Mario Cucinella, Architect and Founder of MCA, commented: "Designing the Italian Pavilion for Expo 2025 Osaka is a unique opportunity to create a true stage, not only to showcase the culture, history, and innovation of our country but also to establish a space for fostering connections: for future dialogue, for strengthening cultural, social, and economic ties. Aligned with one of the Expo's themes, 'Saving Lives', the project and its architectural and technological content, as well as the choices of material, propose a renewed balance among humanity, nature, and technology. The Italian Pavilion can become a powerful tool to promote, inspire action, and establish new synergies for the development of a more sustainable future. It represents a new vision of society and the city: a living organism where the relationships among people, art, the environment, and history can come alive." The Italian Pavilion for Expo 2025 Osaka is presented as a living, regenerative ecosystem, capable of embodying the continuous dialogue among tradition and innovation, art and science, craftsmanship and technology. Designed and built by MCA – Mario Cucinella Architects, the Pavilion is conceived as a dynamic and immersive laboratory, offering a journey through Italy, told via a series of sensory and narrative experiences that actively engage the visitor.

The Canada Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka features interactive exhibits and installations that present the country's innovation, culture, and diversity. Designed under the creative direction of Robert Lepage, the pavilion offers an immersive experience aimed at introducing Canada's values and capabilities to a global audience. Additionally, it aims to showcase Canadian innovation, resources, investment, and education to the broader Indo-Pacific region. Centered around regeneration, the design is in line with the broader theme at the Expo: "Designing the Future Society for Our Lives."

The Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) General Assembly in Paris has officially approved the Registration Dossier for Expo 2030 Riyadh, formally confirming Saudi Arabia as the host of the upcoming World Expo. With this milestone, the next phase of preparations will begin, including the official invitation of participating countries through diplomatic channels. Coinciding with the approval, the initial masterplan for the Expo site designed by LAVA, the Laboratory for Visionary Architecture, has been unveiled. Scheduled to take place from October 1, 2030, to March 31, 2031, the event will be held on a site in Riyadh, designed to accommodate more than 40 million visits and host over 195 participating nations.

Designed by French architecture studio Coldefy with Italian design and innovation practice CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati. The France Pavilion is envisioned as a 'theatre of life', where architecture frames moments of presence, movement, and interaction. Inspired by a mise-en-scène, or stage design and arrangement, the Pavilion is designed as a fluid sequence of spaces, guiding visitors through changing perspectives that mirror the rhythms of daily life – the beginning, transition, pause, and departure. The design draws inspiration from the Japanese legend of Akai Ito, the invisible red thread connecting destined souls. In a time defined by digital estrangement, the Pavilion reclaims physical space as a medium for dialogue. A quiet inner garden offers refuge, emphasizing that encounters with nature are just as vital as those with one another. Its shifting façade, with 17 meters high fabric veils resembling theatre curtains suspended down two sides, is in contact with the elements and responds to light and wind. The pathway through the Pavilion follows a carefully choreographed progression – ascending towards an exhibition displayed inside, alternating between enclosed and open-air spaces, and concluding with a return to the wider Expo site.

The UAE Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, titled "Earth to Ether," presents an immersive, multisensory experience that narrates the story of the United Arab Emirates, from its cultural heritage and core values to its forward-looking innovations. Inspired by the symbolic date palm, the pavilion reimagines areesh, a traditional form of Emirati vernacular architecture, by combining agricultural byproducts from date palms with refined Japanese woodworking techniques. Opened in April 2025, under the theme "Designing Future Society for Our Lives," the pavilion is located in the "Empowering Lives" zone. Designed to work under the broader theme, the UAE Pavilion offers diverse programming and interactive exhibits and serves as a collaborative platform for co-creating solutions that "drive collective progress."

The Spanish Pavilion at the Expo Osaka 2025 is designed by the architecture and design practices Néstor Montenegro (EXTUDIO), Enorme Studio, and Smart and Green Design. This comes after being selected in the public competition organized by the Spanish Cultural Action (AC / E), the institution responsible for representing the country in Universal and International Expositions. Located in the northern section of the 65-hectare Pavilion World, within the thematic area of Connecting Lives, the pavilion highlights the key concepts of Oceand and Sun, Sustainability and Circularity, and Craftsmanship Knowledge. The exhibition will be open throughout the event, until October 13, 2025.

The Serbian Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka positions itself as a striking ambassador of sustainable and culture-infused design, combining technological foresight with emotional narrative. Designed by ALEATEK Studio, the pavilion manifests the concept of a "Floating Forest", referencing Belgrade's protected Ratno Ostrvo (Great War Island), and stands as the only Expo pavilion featuring a living façade, with over 95% of its materials being recyclable and 80% reusable in future constructions.

Expo 2025 officially opened its doors on April 13, 2025, on Yumeshima, a reclaimed island in Osaka Bay. Held under the theme "Designing Future Society for Our Lives," the event brings together over 150 countries and international organizations to address pressing global challenges through architecture, technology, and design. At the center of the Expo grounds stands the Grand Ring, a monumental circular structure designed by Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto. Spanning approximately 2 kilometers in circumference and rising to 20 meters in height, the timber structure encircles the main exhibition area and was recognised by Guinness World Records as "The largest wooden architectural structure".