Over its 170-year history, World Expos have become synonymous with architectural innovation. This year’s event in Osaka is no different, featuring a plethora of groundbreaking pavilions — including one wrapped in a traditional woven fabric (pictured), which set not one, but two Guinness World Records. Look through the gallery to see more awe-inspiring architecture on display at Expo 2025.
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Designed by globally renowned architecture firm Foster + Partners, Saudi Arabia’s national pavilion recreates a traditional settlement with a maze of shaded, narrow alleys and courtyards. But its heritage aesthetic hides some high-tech infrastructure, including photovoltaic technologies to generate energy. Made with lightweight, low-carbon materials, the pavilion’s modular design enables it to be easily deconstructed and reassembled, giving it a life beyond the Expo.
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The Singapore Pavilion plays on the city state’s nickname, “The Little Red Dot,” with a façade clad in 17,000 recycled aluminum discs. The 17-meter-high pavilion, known as “The Dream Sphere,” houses immersive art installations within its bright red walls.
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One of the Expo’s signature pavilions, null² is an “interactive monument” by Japanese media artist Yoichi Ochiai. Exploring the idea of mirrors, the pavilion’s reflective exterior – which employs mirror membranes, LEDs, and robots — shimmers and vibrates as if alive. Before entering, visitors can create a “mirrored body,” a digital self, based on their own data that acts autonomously.
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Topped with a glowing sphere which represents a rising sun, the Netherlands Pavilion is “fully circular,” from its imagery to its materials to its energy usage. The pavilion’s materials are all registered in Madaster, a platform that tracks and manages everything used in a project, ensuring transparency in how its reused after Expo.
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Designed by the German architecture firm Atelier Brückner, the Uzbekistan Pavilion is a conceptual garden, centered around a “forest” of locally sourced wooden columns which echo the timber pillars of the historic Juma Mosque in Khiva. Inside the pavilion, 11,000 handmade turquoise ceramic tiles adorn the walls, a tribute to the blue tiles decorating many of Uzbekistan’s most iconic buildings. The modular timber frame is expected to be reused in the country after the Expo finishes, in construction projects ranging from workshops to schools.
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The Pasona Natureverse explores life from its ancient origins to the future of regenerative medicine. The pavilion, designed by architect Satoshi Itasaka, takes inspiration from the ammonite, a prehistoric shelled creature most often seen as a spiral fossil. Outside, Japanese anime character Astro Boy poses on top of a conch-shaped structure.
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On the theme of “composing the future,” the Austria Pavilion features a distinctive wooden spiral: a 91-meter-long, 4.3-meter-wide ribbon which represents a giant musical score, and includes the opening bars of Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. According to the pavilion’s architects, the wooden structure showcases Austria and Japan’s shared timber craftsmanship while minimizing carbon emissions.
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Spheres are a common sight at this year’s expo, and Switzerland’s pavilion uses the shape to create four interconnected bubbles made from a lightweight, transparent membrane that has minimal environmental impact, according to Expo 2025.
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The France Pavilion is a tribute to all things love. It reimagines the “red string of fate,” an East Asian folk story about the invisible thread that joins soulmates, as a spectacular copper spiral staircase. According to the pavilion’s architects, its prefabricated, modular designs enable quick disassembly, and the various parts of the pavilion can be repurposed in future projects.
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Exemplifying many of the expo’s architectural motifs, including circularity, sustainability and craftsmanship, the Japan Pavilion is made from cross-laminated timber planks that can be reused in other building projects. The tall, thin panels are angled to integrate natural light and shade, blurring the boundaries of indoor and outdoor spaces.
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The Women’s Pavilion, a collaborative exhibition with Cartier that celebrates the contributions of women to society, repurposes the façade from the Japan Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. Designed by Japanese architect Yuko Nagayama, it’s one of the first times part of a pavilion has been reused in consecutive Expos.
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The Osaka Healthcare Pavilion, run by the prefecture and Osaka City, is all about rebirth. A transparent, tent-like roof covers the wood pavilion, with its many support beams forming a nest-like aesthetic. Its exhibits include a “human washing machine,” cutting-edge examples of stem cell technology, and a “future life” simulator, where visitors can generate an avatar for 2050 based on their current health data.
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The Ireland Pavilion is modeled after a “triskele,” an ancient Celtic motif composed of three conjoined spirals. Clad in Irish timber, the pavilion echoes Japan’s history of wooden craftsmanship and the Grand Ring that runs around the entire Expo site.
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The United Arab Emirates Pavilion pays tribute to one of the region’s most enduring materials: the date palm. More than two million palm fronds are transformed into 90 five-story columns, while date pits are ground and recycled into a sustainable concrete alternative.
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Inside the Osaka Healthcare Pavilion, three spiral staircases form DNA-like helices. Its exhibits include a “human washing machine,” cutting-edge examples of stem cell technology, and a “future life” simulator, where visitors can generate an avatar for 2050 based on their current health data.
Electronics manufacturer Panasonic invites visitors into a world of tech-enabled wonder at its children’s pavilion, “The Land of NOMO.” The structure is predominantly built with recycled glass, iron and copper from home appliances, like washer-dryers, and utilizes a prototype of ultra-thin, flexible, perovskite solar cells outside the pavilion.
Japanese timber company Sumitomo Group took inspiration from the mountain peaks of Shikoku, for its namesake pavilion. It incorporates wood from 1,000 cedar and cypress trees that were planted in the group’s forestry in 1970, the year of the last World Expo in Osaka.
Incorporating imagery of the sun and sea, Spain’s national pavilion creates a public plaza in the middle of the Expo site, reminiscent of the Spanish Steps in Rome. Themed around the “Kuroshio Current,” a historical ocean route used by Spanish navigators from the 16th century to travel between Asia and the Americas, the pavilion’s concept symbolizes global trade and cultural exchange.
Commissioned by a non-profit called Zero Emissions Research and Initiatives (ZERI), the Blue Ocean Dome is raising awareness around marine pollution and possible solutions. The recyclable pavilion, designed by award-winning Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, experiments with sustainable materials including laminated bamboo, paper tubes, and plastic that’s reinforced with carbon fiber.
