The Women’s Pavilion in collaboration with Cartier will reuse material
from the facade of the Japan Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai. By effectively
reusing facade materials and utilizing low-carbon and leased materials
for the steel frame of the basic structure, CO2 emissions are estimated tobe half of what they would have been using standard materials. @CARTIERWOMEN’S PAVILION AT, KANSAI EXPOOSAKA
PURSUING A FAIR AND
SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

The overall theme of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan is “Designing Future Society
for Our Lives.” Among the many creative exhibits is one worthy of special attention:
the Women’s Pavilion in collaboration with Cartier, a sequel to the one presented at
the previous exposition in Dubai. The lead architect of the pavilion is NAGAYAMA
Yuko. What is the future of gender equality that she wants to share?
Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan
will be held from April to October
2025. It will be the country’s
first world exposition since theExposition of Global Harmony(Expo 2005 Aichi) that was staged
two decades earlier. More than160 nations have signed up toparticipate in Expo 2025 under
the central theme of “Designing
Future Society for Our Lives.”
Distinctive pavilions sponsoredby countries from all over theworld, along with eight Signature

Pavilions focusing on “life” andseveral domestic Japanese pavilions
including the Japan Pavilion itself,
will invite visitors to unite increating a common future.
Among the numerous eyecatching pavilions is one that calls
for special attention: the Women’s
Pavilion in collaboration withCartier—a collaborative effort by
the Japanese Cabinet Office, theMinistry of Economy, Trade andIndustry, Cartier, and the Japan
Association for the 2025 World©Expo 2025

Exposition.
Amidsttheincreasing
empowerment of women aroundthe world, the first Women’sPavilion was the one at Expo 2020
Dubai, held from 2021 to 2022.
Following in the footsteps of thatsuccessful debut, the second willcontinue to celebrate women’scontributions to society and taketheir evolution one step further
under the concept that “whenwomen thrive, humanity thrives.”
NAGAYAMA Yuko is the leadarchitect of the pavilion. “Ourfocus is the realization of genderequality—one of the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs)—but
making life more livable for women
is not the only goal. By turning
our gaze toward people regarded
as minorities, we grow closer tobuilding a more livable society for
all people, which, I believe, is ourultimate goal,” she asserts.
Anothermuch-talked-about
feature of the new Women’sPavilion is the breakthrough ideaof reusing material from the facadeof the Japan Pavilion in Dubai.
It was Nagayama herself who
designed the three-dimensional
kumiko pattern lattice structureof Dubai’s Japan Pavilion, which
made a fresh departure from the“typical Japanese” method of using
only traditional Japanese materials.
“I wanted to express Japanesereality as it is for our generation,as our consciousness is not entirely
immersed in Japan. We are a
global mix, and a distinct kind ofJapanese-ness has arisen from thatmix. That is how I saw it.”Eager to incorporate the conceptof “responsible consumption
and production” (another SDG)
into her design, Nagayama
utilized versatile materials. She
also used detachable ball joints
and transparent membrane-liketraditional Japanese paper toexpress the beauty of light andshadow. “The pavilion with its
slender structural expression atDubai Expo was in itself unusual,”she said.
After Dubai Expo 2020 ended,nearly 10,000 parts, consisting ofa ball joint and poles, were stored

and managed using 2D codes.
Nagayama has since contrived away to utilize the existing material
effectively in the next space—thereverse process of what usually
goes on in design. That was a newexperience, Nagayama admits.
The site assigned for the
Women’s Pavilion at Expo 2025 islong and narrow. The parts to be
used have been transplanted into
the new location by matching theirstrength and length, and structural
analysis is being conducted as thedesign proceeds. Examples of thedesign include two spacious innercourtyards where visitors can relax.
Es Devlin, a contemporary
British artist who worked on theBritish Pavilion in Dubai, is charged
with the overall content creationand curation of the Women’s
Pavilion at Expo 2025. There is an
event hall inside the pavilion called“WA” space—referring to various
Japanese characters that can mean

Above: Different contexts create new challenges;
at Expo 2020, the footprint of the original Japan
Pavilion was an isosceles triangle on a trapezoidal
site (left). This time in Osaka, the given site isnarrow and linear (right). YUKO NAGAYAMA & ASSOCIATES
Top right: NAGAYAMA Yuko is the leadarchitect in charge of the architectural design ofthe Women’s Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka,Kansai. Here she sits behind a scale model of hercreation.
Bottom right: The Japan Pavilion at Dubai Expofeatured detachable ball joints, which held
together a beautiful facade whose aspect changed
depending on the angle, delighting viewers.
©EXPO 2020 DUBAI JAPAN PAVILION“harmony,” “talk” or “circle”—
where talk sessions will be held forstakeholders to engage in dialogue
and discuss viable solutions beyond
national and sectoral boundaries
throughout the Expo.
Nagayama is raising two children
as she works on multiple projects,
and she recognizes that thisrequires an immense amount ofenergy. “I hope that the Women’s
Pavilion will be the starting point,
and eventually the issues womenface will be resolved and the next
generation will no longer need aseparate pavilion. I hope that suchan epoch will come,” she says.
Focusing on women will also
reveal the problems faced by theentire human race in all its diversity.
Toward a brighter future where
everyone can live equally, respect
each other, and shine together; theWomen’s Pavilion is a call to action
to ensure that such a future will be
more than just a pipe dream. 