The Ireland Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka combines Irish timber with Japanese building materials, in the form of an abstracted Celtic spiral. The pavilion provides an environment in which visitors can engage on a personal level with exhibitions, performances and the pavilion team. Located beside the main entrance to the Expo, the Ireland Pavilion acts as a gateway for visitors to the entire Expo site. Ireland’s theme at the Expo is ‘Creativity Connects People’, and programmed activities include contributions from Irish universities, cultural institutions, as well as Government departments and State Agencies.
Upon approach, visitors are greeted by a gilded monumental sculpture, the Magnus RINN, set in a garden evocative of an Irish landscape. The curves of the pavilion and its wooden cladding reflect and compliment the curvature of the Grand Ring, the elevated wooden walkway which forms a ring around the Expo site. The Ireland Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka is a key part of the Ireland Japan 2025 programme, a year-long series of activities designed to increase Ireland’s presence and visibility, including through the opening later this year of a new Ireland House, and to strengthen existing political, economic and people-to-people links.
An abstracted Celtic spiral
Government of Ireland architects from the Office of Public Works designed the pavilion, made up of three elliptical areas and a central interlocking space, to represent an abstracted triskele in three dimensions. The Ireland Pavilion, measuring approximately 752 square meters, has three discrete areas at ground (public visitor) level: the entrance hall, the first exhibition space, and the principal exhibition and performance space. All three are linked as areas of visitor experience. These three areas take the form of elliptical elements of varying heights which intersect to represent an abstracted triple knot in three dimensions. The triple knot, or triskele, is an ancient motif which has appeared in Irish art and craft since Neolithic times.
The Ireland Pavilion is designed to be – Contextual: the interlacing curved forms physically echo the Grand Ring and sit in harmony with it; Nodal: the site is a place of convergence at the start of a route and the Pavilion acts as a ‘gateway’ for visitors to the entire Expo site; Identifiable: the ‘abstracted triple knot’ shape is distinctive and carries an identifiable cultural reference; Social: the incorporation of roof terraces at different levels creates points of interest that can be seen from beyond the site, revealing expansive views for visitors; and Ecological: the design responds to its environment – the timber façade uses a sustainable resource to provide solar shading and shelter. Timber as a construction material is common to both Irish and Japanese craft and construction.
A harmonious relationship between built and natural environment is key to the pavilion’s design. Sustainability was a crucial principle, from the inception of the design to the detailing of the construction materials and the environmental systems. The structural frame with an external envelope of vertical timber louvres has been designed to allow ease of dismantling and the recycling and re-use of materials.
The building uses and showcases sustainable Irish timber throughout, sourced by Coillte, Ireland’s state-owned commercial forestry organization, from a single forest. Internally, dark stained timber evokes the richness of ancient Irish bog oak. The external timber louvres, sawn from Irish Douglas Fir, create depth and texture on the curved walls, accentuating the intersecting forms and creating shadows to animate the façade as the sun moves across the sky.
Magnus RINN
Outside the pavilion, a monumental sculpture conceptualized by Joseph Walsh and made in collaboration with his team acts as a tangible expression of our theme, combining beauty of form with natural materials and creative making.
Magnus RINN is a circular form, transitioning from bronze to wood and finished in gold gilding. It symbolizes the relationship between man and nature: although man made, its shape is influenced by its natural materials and the climatic and geological forces that gave them their distinctive character and substance, yielding to the passing of time and the cyclical rhythms of nature.
Magnus RINN sits outside the pavilion in a specially made landscape, designed by Hiroyuki Tsujii, the custodian of the Karasaki Pine Tree, in collaboration with Joseph Walsh Studio. It will act as an iconic focal point, visible from the Square of Light and the Grand Ring, and a gathering place for visitors.
Kwaidan Project
On the walls of the pavilion VIP space, located on the first floor, specially framed ‘Kwaidan Project’ prints have been hung. The ‘Kwaidan Project’ is an Irish-Japanese cultural collaboration. It is exhibition of fine art prints & photographs by 40 Japanese and Irish artists inspired by Lafcadio Hearn’s masterpiece ‘Kwaidan’. In addition to its permanent presence at the Ireland Pavilion for the six months of Expo, the exhibition is currently touring.
Use of Irish wood in the Pavilion design
Coillte, Ireland’s state-owned commercial forestry organization, sourced Irish Douglas fir for the project. GP Wood, then processed the logs and cut, dried and graded the cladding to the required specifications. The Pavilion which is externally clad in Douglas fir timbers lends itself to the overall architectural design inspired by Ireland’s ancient Celtic Stone Age.
Douglas fir was chosen for its distinct grain, texture, and color. Surfaces with prominent textures create a ‘haptic invitation’ – they invite touch, encourage exploration of the built environment to engage with the architecture, and enhance one’s experience of the space. Equally, as a naturally durable species, it is ideally suited for exposed applications such as those demanded of the project. Coillte and GP Wood are proud that Irish timber is being used to highlight the connection between Irish and Japanese craft.
