Swiss pavilion could be big hit at lacklustre World Expo

The Swiss pavilion under construction, shortly before completion. © Manuel Herz Architekten

Expo 2025 is due to open in Osaka, Japan, on April 13. Interest in this World’s Fair among the Japanese themselves is muted at best. Switzerland has a chance to shine with an innovative pavilion.

James Wolfensberger from Zurich will be spending a few weeks in Japan this April, admiring the cherry blossoms and seeing a few old friends. He also plans to visit the 2025 World Expo in Osaka. “What’s important to me is the ‘feeling’ when I look at an exhibition or a building,” says the 63-year-old computer scientist, who is also a video artist in his spare time. “I am looking forward to the Expo, where I will be able to experience things that I can’t find on TV or the internet.”

Manuel Herz’s design took into account the fact that the Expo will only last six months and that all the buildings will have to be demolished after the end of the event. Copyright: Manuel Herz Architects

The Swiss pavilion should meet Wolfensberger’s expectations. It’s also likely to be one of the main attractions at this Expo. Designed by Manuel Herz with his Basel-based architecture firm and developed together with design studio Bellprat Partner and the construction company Nüssli, it will have the “smallest possible environmental footprint of Expo 2025”, says Herz. In other words, the pavilion will have a minimal impact on the natural world, from the building phase to the dismantling afterwards.

Herz tells SWI swissinfo.ch that the main consideration he had when designing the structure was that the Expo would last just six months, and the pavilion would have to be dismantled at the end. “Sustainability has become one of the most important factors in contemporary architecture and construction,” he says. Accordingly, the Swiss pavilion will feature light building materials and a modular structure. The plan is for the entire pavilion to be recycled after the event, and maybe put up elsewhere in Japan.

Innovative Swiss pavilion

The exhibition space of the Swiss pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka features five globes or spheres: four on the ground level and one as part of the main building behind them. Each globe consists of two different layers. The inner layer is made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), which is used to make shopping bags, for examples. The outer layer is made of ethylene tetrafluoroethylene (ETFE), a polymer known for its lightness.

These membranes are inflated and mounted on a steel framework. This is known as “pneumatic architecture”.  It produces a much lighter building than a design using concrete or masonry. The outer surfaces weigh less than 400kg. In general, the lighter a building is, the lower its emissions are. Despite their lightness, these globes are strong enough to withstand a typhoon or earthquake, according to the calculations of Japanese and Swiss engineers.

This pavilion also has a modular construction. The globes can be taken apart easily and transported one by one. This keeps down the CO₂ emissions. It also makes it easier to reuse the globes after the exhibition. Negotiations are already in progress with a number of Japanese companies to sell the pavilion after the World Expo. Last autumn Kyoto Design Lab, the academic partner of Manuel Herz Architects, held a workshopExternal link on recycling the materials used. The results will be presented at the Expo.

The unique structure, shaped like a cluster of enormous soap bubbles, was inspired by Expo 1970 in Osaka. “Back then it really was an explosion of bold, funny, humorous, experimental pavilion constructions, if you look at the pictures from Osaka 1970,” says Herz.

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Little interest in Japan

The building of the Swiss pavilion is due to be completed at the end of March. Not all countries’ pavilions are doing so well. Originally a total of 60 countries signed up to install national pavilions, but several dropped out, with 47 countries now left, reports the Japanese newspaper YomiuriExternal link. Due to high building costs, some nations, like Brazil and Slovenia, have decided to go for a less expensive alternative. They will use a pavilion provided by the Japanese themselves. Others, such as Mexico and Argentina, have cancelled their participation at the Expo altogether.

The Japanese people are showing little interest in this Expo. According to a regular survey on the 2025 Expo conducted by the Mitsubishi Research Institute since April 2021, only 24% of respondents in Japan in October 2024 indicated they would be interested in the Expo. This figure declined from 30% in the first survey. The proportion of people who said they would visit the Expo has also dropped.

Shoko Okuno of the Mitsubishi Research Institute says that, “with the passage of time, more people have heard negative news about the Expo”, so the number expressing disinterest or aversion is on the rise.　

In particular, older Japanese, who are the main consumers of unfavourable reporting on TV, have lost interest in the event. “The more they remember of Expo 1970, which was an undoubted success, the harder it is for them to envisage this one being a success too,” Okuno says. “The younger generation, which has no recollection of previous Expos, are interested in the usual aspects of any Expo: content, design, and interaction with foreign visitors.”

To generate interest in Osaka Expo, the official mascot “Myaku-myaku” and the “Japanese” Heidi are working diligently together. Keystone / Cyril Zingaro

Are Expos on the way out?

Some critical observers see the Expo format as outdated at a time when knowledge and networks are widely available online. Prominent Japanese writer Yasutaka Tsutsui declared in an interview with Yahoo! NewsExternal link: “The idea of holding yet another world fair is outdated. Japan has no money for this, any more than the participating countries do.”

Low interest is reflected in slumping ticket sales. The Japan Association for the 2025 World ExpositionExternal link reported that, by mid-February, only 7.88 million admission tickets had been sold. The aim is to sell 14 million tickets by the time the Expo opens on April 13.

Switzerland remains hopeful

From the Swiss point of view, there are grounds for optimism. Manuel Salchli, commissioner-general of the Swiss pavilion, points out that the last two months of any Expo tend to see the greatest number of visitors. He should know, because since Expo 2005 in Aichi (also in Japan), he has managed the Swiss pavilion at the world exhibitions. He also chairs the steering committee of the 160 nations participating in the Osaka event.

Manuel Salchli presents the Swiss Pavilion during a press conference for the Osaka-Kansai Expo in December 2024. SWI swissinfo.ch/Tomoko Muth

For Salchli, the best measure of success is not the number of visitors but how happy these visitors are with the experience. The contribution an Expo makes to sustainable development is also important. “Success can be measured by how many new technologies or solutions are presented and that are going to have a broad impact on society later on,” he says.

Switzerland has participated in nearly every World’s Fair. But even the Alpine nation too has had to tighten its belt in recent years. Budgets for the Dubai Expo 2020 and this Osaka Expo were about 25% lower than the purse for previous efforts. Switzerland, like some other countries, actually considered not creating its own pavilion in Osaka and instead renting one of the standard pavilions offered by the Japanese organisers. Salchli says this idea was not retained, because by the time the option arose, a contract had been signed to build a pavilion at a fixed cost.

Herz, the architect, emphasises that the country’s effort in Expo 2025 showcases the main attributes of Switzerland: innovation, curiosity, and the world of nature. “This building will inspire visitors, I hope, and amuse them too,” he says. “I want them to enjoy it.”

Here you can see how Presence Switzerland envisions
the pavilion:

Edited by Reto Gysi von Wartburg. Adapted from German by Terence MacNamee/gw