Osaka, Japan
Envisioned as a dynamic entity, the Italian Pavilion for Expo Osaka 2025 by Mario Cucinella aims to foster knowledge and innovation through the interplay of different generations and cultures
The Italian Pavilion will be a living organism, producing knowledge and innovation by cross-fertilising between generations and cultures: a vast warehouse of Italian know-how that will embrace artistic, scientific, entrepreneurial, and social experiments.
The spaces of the Pavilion will bring to light and stimulate the creative DNA that is innate in all Italians, and that the whole world envies.
The cultural artefacts of Italy’s heritage will be placed in evidence, decomposed, and then re-proposed in an unexpected contemporary way.
The Pavilion is cosisted oftwomain parts; a showcase building containing the exhibition itself (the core experience) and a service area containing the secondary functions, located behind the showcase.
The pavilion embodies a design that allows it to be bathed in the radiant light emanating from the sky and sea surrounding the area.
Its primary façade features an expansive portico supported by towering columns, providing a glimpse into a spacious atrium and highlighting the architectural layout of the internal visitor pathway.
The circulation encourages visitors to set out on a creative adventure where they will gradually become immersed in the spirit of Italy.
This includes the vivid colors, the proportions, and the sense of community found in Renaissance paintings. In fact, the experience has been divided into three separate “acts,” each rooted in locations and experiences in which Italy has played an essential role.
In the theater, Italy’s infamous performing arts heritage is on display.
In an immersive, multisensory theatrical space that subjects the viewer to visual suggestions, sounds, movements, and colors, visitors will experience an alteration of perceptions.
Throughout the experience, possible future scenarios will come up.
Here, the spectator becomes interchangeable with the actor, and the natural world becomes indistinguishable from the virtual.
Finally, the Pavilion’s roof hosts the Italian Garden. Designed as a place for leisure and delight, it is a modern interpretation of the labyrinth, symbolizing humans’ power over nature.
The Italian Garden suggests that humans may confine these experiences by subjecting them to rules, laws, and mathematics.
In this portion of the display, visitors have the chance to experience a new equilibrium between the natural and the artificial.
The Italian Garden is envisioned as the ultimate balance between life’s organic originality and human design’s rationality.
The Pavilion project began by studying Osaka’s local climate to understand its unique features.
The project takes an integrated approach, aiming to mitigate its environmental impact and create a circular economy at the construction site.
It prioritizes natural materials, short supply chains, recycled content, non-toxic components, and sustainability certifications to achieve this.
At the end of its lifecycle, the Pavilion becomes a resource, as its elements can naturally transform to meet new needs without further processing.
Project: Italian Pavilion at Expo Osaka 2025
Architects: Mario Cucinella Architects
Lead Architects: Mario Cucinella
Project Manager: Giovanni Trogu
ΒΙΜ: GAE Engineering Srl
Client: Commissariato generale di sezione per la partecipazione italiana a Expo 2025 Osaka
Photographs: courtesy of Mario Cucinella Architects
