Recently, AEDI Design Bureau team had the opportunity to visit the upcoming World Expo Osaka 2025 in Kansai — an experience that offered a rare glimpse into how design, technology, and culture can redefine the way we live in the years ahead.
The Expo has always been more than a global showcase. It is a peephole to the future — a place where nations exchange ideas, where imagination becomes a shared resource, and where collective innovation takes form. It exists not as an end in itself, but as a catalyst for new possibilities — where wisdom from one country might become the key to solving challenges in another.
Among the site’s defining features stands The Grand Ring, designed by Sou Fujimoto — a two-kilometre timber structure that encircles the entire venue. The ring embodies both unity and diversity, bringing together pavilions from across the world within one continuous architectural gesture. Beyond its symbolism, it serves as a shaded walkway that connects experiences, shelters visitors from the elements, and opens panoramic views of the Seto Inland Sea and Kansai region.
Inside the grounds, the future unfolds through multiple interpretations.
At the Japan Pavilion, we encountered The Human Washer — an installation exploring fine-bubble technology as a response to the world’s growing water challenges. The concept blends empathy and functionality, cleansing both body and mind within seconds.
At the NTT Pavilion by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, visitors are invited to engage with an interactive structure that responds to touch and movement with sound — a poetic dialogue between human presence and architectural form.
The Qatar Pavilion, designed by Kengo Kuma, reflects spatial rhythm and material warmth through his signature approach to light and texture. Nearby, the Forest of Tranquility by SANAA dissolves the boundary between structure and landscape — creating a quiet balance between softness, precision, and light.
Another highlight, the Null Pavilion by Yoichi Ochiai, presents a vision of transformable architecture — a living structure inspired by fog, formed from mirrored organic membranes that shift in reflection and perception.
Together, these experiences reveal a shared narrative of what the future of design could be — responsive, interconnected, and deeply human.
For AEDI team, the Expo serves as a reminder that progress is not a solitary pursuit but a collective effort. Much like interior design, it thrives on dialogue, adaptation, and empathy — creating spaces that not only shape how we live but also how we understand one another.
