There’s a reason why Expo 2025 Osaka offers a season pass. It’s impossible to see and experience everything it has to offer on one trip from a logistical standpoint and due to sensory overload. Many pavilions require advance reservations through lotteries, which makes sense for managing the crowds, but also creates a significant barrier to entrance. Nevertheless, it’s an experience like no other.
It’s hard to capture every thread of narrative and every thoughtful detail in short descriptions, but here’s our unofficial selection of the pavilions that pushed the boundaries of exhibit and experience design, and engagement, and left us feeling transported.
Pasona Natureverse
Inspired by the shape of ammonites, ancient sea creatures that survived multiple extinction periods, the spiral-shaped Pasona Natureverse pavilion celebrates life with the concept of “harmony between nature and technology.”
The key exhibit here is the “iPS Heart,” a three-dimensional, moving cardiomyocytes model heart created with living cells using biomaterials and bioengineering. Seeing it in action is wild. This piece alone would be enough to draw a video-recording frenzy to the pavilion, but layered storytelling, guided by Astroyboy and Blackjack, who represent technological and medical innovation, creates a cohesive and inspiring experience.
The pavilion opens with a “Tree of Life Evolution” exhibit, which looks like a tree and a blood vessel at the same time, and visually tells the story of past and future. From breakthroughs in surgeries to a futuristic bed that adapts to a person’s stats, the following parts of the exhibit talk about the future of everything from medical care to sleep to agriculture. With an impressive lineup of partners, including Lenovo and Motorola, it felt like the best of both trade show and museum experiences, designed to engage and inspire multiple generations.
France
Titled “Theatre of Life,” the multi-layered narrative of the French pavilion sings a hymn to love—loving yourself, loving others, loving the planet. Visitors ascend a ribbon-like ramp clad in reflective pink copper and find themselves in a world filled with beauty and elegance, and striking brand messaging. With the LVMH group a key sponsor, Louis Vuitton turned luxury luggage into an immersive experience, celebrating the brand’s craftsmanship through contrasting spaces built entirely from the brand’s iconic trunks.
In the first room, 84 stacked wardrobe trunks serve as architectural elements, forming a flowing space, and in the second, white Courrier Lozine trunks form a massive kinetic sphere that serves as a canvas for digital artwork.
Next, visitors step into the luminous world of Dior, anchored by an entirely white gallery of the brand’s designs, infused by the projected images of Dior models. From Rodin’s sculptures of hands to immersive light installations, the entire experience prompts you to rethink the connections between time and space, expanding the definition of artistic and brand immersion.
Singapore
The “Little Red Dot,” a nod to the country’s nickname symbolizing achievement and resilience despite limited land area, Singapore’s “Dream Sphere” is impossible to miss. Enveloped by thousands of recycled disks, it invites attendees to explore the power of dreams while showcasing the city-state’s innovation for a sustainable future. Visitors step into a dreamscape filled with paper cutouts depicting the country’s ever-changing landscape before moving onto the immersive sound installation and watching the dreams they share light up the spheres in a moment where technology powers true engagement and emotion.
Null²
A structure that seemingly comes alive is a showstopping first for many visitors. Designed by Tokyo- and Taipei-based studio NOIZ in collaboration with media artist and researcher Yoichi Ochiai, this pavilion is constructed from voxel-like modules clad in a newly developed mirrored membrane that shimmers and moves in response to the environment. And it makes sounds. Inside, digital twins respond to attendees’ presence and robotic arms and embedded woofers interact with mirrored surfaces through movement and sound, while remote users can also participate through robotic avatars, redefining authorship.
USA
The line to visit the U.S. pavilion extended well under the “Wooden Ring,” which surrounds all the world pavillions at Expo. Splashy displays on both sides of the entrance looped videos of American landscapes and cities, setting the tone for something grand inside. The experience builds on the theme of space exploration as one of humanity’s greatest adventures and grounds for international collaboration.
Spark, the pavilion’s mascot, promotes the theme “Imagine what we can do together” as you move through the exhibit. The experience culminates in a theme-park-like takeoff for the Moon, a definite highlight after multiple videos and static displays, and a chance to see a Lunar sample collected during the Apollo mission. Could Mars be next?
Spain
Walking up the blue stairs into the rising sun of Japan (and also the setting sun of Spain) is an experience that stands out even in a very visually crowded space of the Expo. Leaning into the idea of the Kuroshio Current connecting the East and the West, the pavilion takes visitors on a journey inside—and across the ocean—telling the stories of pirates, and also oceans as labs for biofuels and renewable energy.
Holograms of large pieces of equipment and a bubbling lab display make for engaging and informative visuals. The final space is red-orange, a major contrast to the blue hues, filled with postcards and social media posts, reflecting the vibrancy of Spanish culture, and reminding exhibit designers that sometimes the most impactful design elements are analog.
Brazil
Coming in from the constant rain, visitors appreciated colorful ponchos given out at the Brazil pavilion that celebrate the cycles of life and the country’s joyful culture. The blinds would lift on the exterior, revealing a “living environment” filled with inflatable sculptures that move in response to music and light. What starts out as a completely white space soon undergoes dramatic visual transformations, with the sculptures deflating and “dying,” only to experience rebirth soon after.
The mood shifts in the next space, filled with large-scale videos of the country’s cultural diversity and face-painting activations, enjoyed by kids and adults alike. Authentic coffee adds to the multisensory journey and fuels the adventure to come.
Photo credit: Anna Huddleston
