Belgium puts water, the building blocks of life, centre stage at World Expo Osaka 2025

27/07/2023

Architect Cyril Rousseaux from La Louvière in Wallonia founded the consortium that will build the Belgian pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka 2025. His winning design focuses on people, sustainability and reuse.

From 13 April to 13 October 2025, Osaka will host the World Expo. The pavilions will be built on an artificial island in the bay. The entire expo can be surveyed from a wooden pedestrian walkway that winds around the site in a ring shape, 2 km long and between 12 and 20 m high.

'Cool box' as Belgian showcase

Saving lives reads the theme of the section Belgium chooses at the expo. What we have to offer in this area will be shown in detail: in particular our investments in R&D, applications in healthcare or biotechnology, pharmaceuticals and new technologies to process or recycle waste. Our pavilion looks like a huge 'cooler' showing the three states of aggregation of water - solid, liquid and gas. Like the rainbow-coloured cladding that reflects light, a clear reference to the lgbtqia rights we stand for. Or the water mirror that visitors walk through. Or still, the gaseous cloud of inflatable elements on the roof. Here, 250 people will be able to attend a standing concert. Finally, planted walls and water features form the luminous heart in the centre.

All in all, it's a festive example of sustainable Belgian ingenuity and creativity.