U.S. Department of State Reveals Trahan Architects-Designed USA Pavilion for Expo 2025 Osaka-Kansai, Japan
Pavilion to showcase the best of American architecture, ingenuity, and industry on world stage for Six-month Expo in one of Japan’s largest cities
February 22, 2024
TOKYO, January 31, 2024 — The United States Department of State and U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel have revealed Trahan Architects’ design of the USA Pavilion for Expo 2025 Osaka-Kansai, Japan. Serving as a cultural outpost for the United States, the USA Pavilion at Expo 2025 celebrates the best of contemporary American architecture, innovation, culture, and industry. The USA Pavilion invites visitors to be immersed in a vibrant experience of the United States, featuring panoramic views of the country, and exhibitions that explore sustainability, space exploration, education, and entrepreneurship.
“The USA Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka will be an embodiment of American spirit, celebrating innovation, openness, and global cultural exchange. With two expansive wings designed to inspire visitors to the Expo and invite them inside, the USA Pavilion will encourage curiosity, exploration, and offer opportunities to learn about all the United States has to offer,” said Rahm Emanuel, U.S. Ambassador to Japan. “Built by a world-class design team, led by Trahan Architects of New Orleans, alongside American, Japanese, and international businesses, the USA Pavilion will be an emblem of design excellence at Expo 2025.”
“Gathering across cultures and world regions to share ideas and learn from each other is essential to building a more understanding and human world. As architects, our mission is to bring people together in spaces that cultivate a greater sense of place and strengthen appreciation for our planet,” said Trey Trahan, Founder and CEO of Trahan Architects. “The USA Pavilion at Expo 2025 offers a rare opportunity to explore these critical issues and engage in a global conversation on the future of our environment and our cities.”
Located in a prominently within the Expo 2025 site, the USA Pavilion sits halfway between the Forest of Tranquility and the East Entrance Plaza. Upon entering the East Entrance and passing through the wooden ring which surrounds all the country pavilions, visitors will immediately be welcomed by the USA Pavilion. An open, minimalist building, the USA Pavilion features an expansive plaza framed by panoramic LED screens depicting dynamic images of iconic American urban and natural landscapes. With a design inspired by ancient Japanese footbridges, the plaza arches gently, creating a sense of balance and cultivating a unique visitor journey to through the space.
At the center of the USA Pavilion, bridging the two wings of the building, is a brilliantly illuminated translucent cube, which is suspended overhead, appearing weightless in its simplicity, anchoring the plaza. Inside the “canyon”, visitors become fully immersed in vistas of the United States, juxtaposed with the mirrored surface of the cube suspended overhead, creating an opportunity for contemplation on the relationship between people, the built world, and the environment. Inside, immersive exhibits and storytelling transport visitors to urban and natural locations across the United States, and to outer space, where visitors can explore the moon and other galaxies.
The organizers of Expo 2025 are embracing and incorporating the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals into the event and its programming, which provide shared resolve around goals for our planet, alongside guidance for the built environment. The USA Pavilion will utilize innovative and sustainable materials, and reused steel, tensile fabric, HVAC, plumbing, and other materials from disassembled structures from the Tokyo Olympics, in its construction. These materials will then be stored following the close of Expo 2025, to be reused in the future.
The architectural design of the USA Pavilion at Expo 2025 was led by Trahan Architects. The project team includes ES Global, BRC Imagination Arts, Alchemy International, HOOD Design Studio, Ricca, Dot Dash, and Studio Loutsis. Expo 2025 will open in April 2025 and is expected to receive nearly 30 million visitors over the course of its six-month duration.
The USA Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka-Kansai, Japan will be Trahan Architects’ first built project outside of the United States.
About Trahan Architects
Trahan Architects is a pioneering architecture studio founded in New Orleans, with offices in New York and New Orleans. Through each project, the firm looks to create architecture rooted in its site, drawing from the nature, culture, histories and people of its locale. Founded by Louisiana native Trey Trahan, New Orleans and New York-based Trahan Architects has led designs of cultural and civic projects at all scales, from small-scale museums to urban parks, and cultural centers to stadiums, throughout the United States. Since its founding more than 30 years ago, Trahan Architects has been ranked the number one design firm in the United States and has been honored with more than 100 awards by the American Institute of Architects.