EXPO 2025 OSAKA, KANSAI, JAPAN Mitsubishi Pavilion

Mitsubishi Pavilion for EXPO 2025 OSAKA, KANSAI, JAPAN

This is the Mitsubishi Group pavilion, "Mitsubishi Pavilion" at EXPO 2025 OSAKA, KANSAI, JAPAN.
As the exhibition theme of Mitsubishi Pavilion is "Connecting a vibrant Earth to the future," the pavilion's design concept is the connection between "life, Earth, and humans." The pavilion has one basement floor and two aboveground floors, and is composed of a rhombus inscribed over an oval, cone-shaped semi-underground space, with a rectangle inscribed within the rhombus.
By likening these three geometric shapes - an ellipse, a diamond, and a rectangle - to "life, the earth, and humans," respectively, we expressed the mutually supportive relationships in the building. The building has an omnidirectional design, with no front, as it can be seen not only from the East Gate Plaza side, which is the main approach, but also from the outer perimeter road on the opposite side.

DATA

location	Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture Google map
Applications	Pavilion
Site area	3,476.46㎡
Total floor area	2,075.83㎡
Floor number	2 floors above ground, 1 floor below ground
structure	Steel frame, wood
Our Business	Design and Construction Supervision
Event period	April 13th - October 13th, 2025
Related Links	Mitsubishi Miraikan
photograph	Nacasa and Partners

facade with steel scaffolding boards

View of Sankaku Park from the approach

View of the entrance stairs leading to the pre-show on the first floor from the waiting park

The interior space is centered around a video exhibit, allowing visitors to traverse a variety of different spaces in a three-dimensional manner inside the body.
Visitors first enter the semi-underground waiting park. The building blocks sunlight and allows cool air to flow through, creating a comfortable waiting space that is open to all visitors as a shaded area during extremely hot days.
From there, you can watch an instruction video in the Pre-Show on the first floor, then proceed to the Main Show on the second floor.
After completing the immersive video experience, you will return to the first floor, pass through the Post Show, and finally reach the floating Triangle Park at the tip of the building.

An open-ceiling space created by combining different shapes

Second floor standby

When deciding on the design, we focused on the theme of "small resource circulation."
The pavilion will be dismantled after the six-month event and the site will be returned to its original state.
Therefore, in order to "rent" the earth, a precious global resource, and gently return it to its original state once the Expo is over, the structure was designed to keep the building in contact with the ground as little as possible, and the excavated soil was planned to be used to develop the site and then backfill it.

View of the floating edge of Sankaku Park from the waiting park

The escalator space has a blue tarp ceiling

For the finishing touches, we are exploring different ways to use temporary materials that are usually only used during construction as permanent finishing materials, and by considering reusing them after the event, we are aiming to reduce the economic and environmental burden.
In addition, the air conditioning load was reduced by limiting the air-conditioned areas and making the majority of the building a semi-outdoor space similar to the "veranda" found in Japanese houses. Furthermore, the lighting avoided extravagant effects, instead allowing soft lighting from inside the building to leak directly to the outside, making use of the gradation of light and shadow to create a sense of depth and profundity in the space that respects the darkness rooted in traditional Japanese culture.

Through these initiatives, we aim to achieve short-circuit architecture, which involves a comprehensive design of the entire process from construction to demolition, thereby circulating small resources.