Sou Fujimoto’s studio has shared new construction images of the forthcoming Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai's The Grand Roof circular wooden container structure, a year ahead of the start of the six-month fair, which begins on April 13th, 2025.
The enormous structure is 1,969 feet (600 meters) in diameter and will serve as the main circulatory route for the exhibition, which includes 161 total participating countries/locations.
Fujimoto’s team says their design is meant to evoke a sense of "Unity in Diversity" and takes the Stage of Kiyomizu temple in Kyoto and other historic examples of Japanese timber architecture as its inspiration.
It will support an aerial walkway that affords visitors sightlines into the arena-like layout encased on the manmade Yumeshima island below and divided into three zones (Pavilion World, Water World, and Green World). Once complete, it will stand as one of the world's largest wooden buildings, with a horizontal projected area equivalent to 60,000 square meters (or 646,000 square feet).
Fujimoto says: "I want people to feel that this one sky is connecting all parts of the world full of diversity as is shared by everyone." The studio adds that their design will showcase "the future of wooden architecture to the world and Japan."
The country has seen a late influx of 36 new planning applications for mass timber structures in concert with the national government's drive to reduce carbon emissions by 46% by 2030. Fujimoto's contribution will be joined by Shigeru Ban's design of the official Japanese Pavilion, a domed structure built using paper tubes, bamboo, and carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic.
Sou Fujimoto recently completed a new Japanese headquarters for the New York-based Pace Gallery inside the Azabudai Hills development in Tokyo.
Expo 2025 will run until October 13th, 2025. Our coverage of the recently revealed Unites States pavilion design by Trahan Architects can also be found here.
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