MRC was commissioned by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Culture to run the design competition for KSA’s national pavilion at World Expo 2025 Osaka, enabling the country to respond to the Expo’s themes through their own unique lens.
The 2025 pavilion welcomed over three million visitors, hosted hundreds of public events and excelled in winning the preeminent Expo prize: the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE)’s Gold Award for Architecture and Landscape (for self-built large pavilions).
This invited competition sought an outstanding multi-disciplinary team to design a bold, spectacular and immersive pavilion showcasing how the Kingdom’s unique culture and heritage – and its enduring qualities of innovation, creativity and enterprise – enable it to meet global challenges.
Expo 2025’s theme – Designing Future Society for Our Lives – encouraged participants to consider how they want to live, and how to create sustainable environments that enable individuals to maximize their potential – and respond confidently to societal, environmental and technological challenges. The Expo asked a simple yet fundamental question: what is the happy way of life?
MRC worked with cultural consultants to develop a vision for the pavilion that responded to the overall Osaka theme; then curated the selection process from which Foster + Partners’ winning concept was chosen.
The design presented the story of Saudi Arabia’s rich cultural heritage, national transformation, and global impact. It recalled the organic shapes, spaces and layouts of traditional Saudi villages and answered the competition brief with a highly sustainable pavilion in line with the Saudi Green Initiative.
The design’s aim was to create a journey of discovery focused on cultural exchange and sharing knowledge between visitors from all around the world and the people of Saudi Arabia. Authentic not just to KSA but also to its context in Osaka, this was a space that celebrated human experiences.
The pavilion’s success sets a global platform for the Kingdom to welcome audiences to the next world Expo – to be hosted in Riyadh in 2030.
