Architect Sou Fujimoto: Expo 2025 is ‘a precious opportunity to come together’

As the World’s Fair opens in Osaka, Japan, the event’s architect tells CNN that Expo 2025 is about unity — and the possibilities of timber.

Ever since the Great Exhibition opened its doors in London 174 years ago, the World’s Fair has offered nations a chance to show off the greatest inventions of the age. But Expos of recent decades have been as much about diplomacy and public relations as innovation. It is little surprise, therefore, that the mastermind behind Expo 2025 — which commences this weekend in Osaka, Japan, just three years after the end of Dubai’s Covid-delayed Expo 2020 — doesn’t express his vision in terms of scientific or industrial progress. In an era of increasing conflict, the message is all about unity. “The whole global situation is very unstable,” said Japanese architect Sou Fujimoto, touring CNN around the site ahead of Saturday’s opening ceremony. “I believe this is a really precious opportunity to show (that) so many countries can come together in one place and think about our future together.” Japan hopes to welcome 28 million visitors to the event between now and mid-October. Designed by Fujimoto on a 960-acre artificial island in Osaka Bay, the site will host over 150 pavilions showcasing new technology, design concepts and multimedia exhibitions under the theme “Designing Future Society for Our Lives.” Among them are dozens of national entries, from the serenely minimalist US pavilion to the corkscrew-shaped Czech one. The main attraction, however, is the venue itself: Fujimoto’s Grand Ring, a continuous wooden structure, more than 1.2 miles in circumference, encircling much of the Expo. Made from Japanese cedar and cypress (as well as Scottish pine), it now holds the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest wooden architectural structure. The Grand Ring is symbol of unity, too, Fujimoto said. And while it serves a functional purpose as a pedestrian route around the site, while protecting visitors from rain and sun, the structure was also designed to demonstrate the possibilities of timber as a viable alternative to carbon-intensive concrete.