08/12: Osaka
Expo 2025, Japan Pavilion
The Japan Pavilion—led by Nikken Sekkei and overseen by Oki Sato—is one of the national flagships within the Grand Ring’s core. It deploys a mix of architectural poetics and scientific ambition: its interior programming includes experimental algae research pointing toward biodegradable materials and carbon uptake strategies. Spatially, the pavilion orchestrates scale shifts, shifting thresholds, and a sequence of transition zones.
But even as it gestures at futurism, the pavilion risks overreach. In our visit, the layering of narrative (environment, identity, innovation) sometimes crowded the experience. The architecture felt both saturated with symbolism and reluctant to let forms breathe on their own—a familiar tension in expo design.