Designed to evoke a sense of ‘Unity in Diversity’, the Grand Ring by Sou Fujimoto studio, when completed will be one of the largest wooden buildings in the world with a building area (horizontal projected area) of approximately 60,000 square meters, a height of 12 meters (outside of the roof 20 meters), and an inner diameter of approximately 615 meters. Latest construction updates shared by the studio reveal that almost 80 percent of the structure has been completed.
The Ring is a symbolic gateway, welcoming visitors from all over the world, and embodying the desire of visitors to experience the philosophy of Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai. Designed as the master plan for the highly-anticipated Expo 2025 jointly with Tohata Architects & Engineers and Azusa Sekkei, Sou Fujimoto’s proposal reveals a green roof structure that will serve as the main circulatory route for visitors to access the exhibition’s 161 total participating countries and locations.
“It incorporates our wish that visitors will be able to experience unity in diversity and one world shared by innumerable diversity. The Grand Ring serves as a leading front line for people from all over the world to come and go, communicate, interact and look toward the future and at the same time, it will be a comfortable space that blocks people from rain, wind, and sunlight,” stated the architects.
From the ring-shaped aerial walkway, visitors can overlook the entire venue from various points, and enjoy the calm water view of the Seto Inland Sea illuminated by the sunset. When the visitors look up at the sky, they can see a clear beautiful cut of the sky. Fujimoto wanted people to feel that this one sky is connecting all parts of the world full of diversity as is shared by everyone.
“When creating the overall concept for the Expo site, our priority was ‘unity in diversity’. The messages and significance of Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai will be the value of having countries from all over the world spend six months together, a place where diverse worlds are connected, a future created through real encounters with the world for children and young people, and a brand for Osaka, Kansai and Japan to be globally promoted. We aimed to create a venue concept that can allow visitors to feel, experience and remember the true significance of the Expo,” said the architects.
Made from wood, the roof will be one of the world’s largest wooden buildings. Japan currently has the world’s oldest wooden building – the Horyuji Temple. The combination of ancient traditional techniques and modern technology in this project aims to showcase the future of wooden architecture to the world and position Japan as a leading country in its field. For Fujimoto, wooden architecture is sustainable architecture for the future.
In recent years, there has been a focus on timber construction in terms of carbon neutrality and sustainability, and large-scale timber construction is progressing around the world. According to the architects, these largescale wooden structures can be considered a ‘material of the future’ on a global scale due to their sustainability. Given that Japan is a country with a tradition of over 1,000 years of wooden architecture, the challenge of
updating that tradition with modern technology and making it a new architecture for a sustainable future was huge.
“With one year to go until Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai Japan welcomes the world to Osaka on 13 April 2025. Japan is ready to bring the international community together for six months of collaboration, creativity, innovation, wisdom, dialogue, and action. In an age where humanity is facing a myriad of unprecedented challenges, the need to unite and cooperate, to make genuine, positive, and sustainable change has never been greater,” said the organizers in a press statement.
