Six months remain until the start of the EXPO 2025 World EXPO. The Czech National Pavilion is growing at a breathtaking speed and taking on clear shapes
The gates of next year's World EXPO in Osaka, Japan, will open exactly six months from now, on April 13, 2025. EXPO 2025 will be held over the following six months, and the organizers expect as many as 30 million people to visit. One of the iconic constructions that not only the organizers; but also the Japanese and other foreign media are proud to invite visitors to is the Czech National Pavilion. Construction officially began in mid-May, with the wooden structure being assembled from about mid-September. It is now getting clear outlines and shapes. We bring you an exclusive photo gallery and comment on the construction progress.
„Construction of the Czech National Pavilion at EXPO 2025 formally began mid-May, a month after we signed a contract with the Japanese construction company Daisue. In May, we also held a jichinsai ceremony on the Czech land on Yumeshima Island in Osaka Bay, where the upcoming EXPO will be held. Subsequently, preparatory work was carried out, and Japanese contractors worked on the foundations of the Czech National Pavilion, which are very crucial for the construction - they must be sufficient support for possible earthquakes and typhoons,“ says Ondřej Soška, General Commissioner of the Czech participation in EXPO 2025, adds, „On 17 September, the construction of the wooden structure began. To date, the assembly of the entire basement has been completed, and over the weekend the contractors finished installing the inner core of the building and the floor in the auditorium. After less than a month of work on the installation of the wood structure, approximately 40 per cent of the rough construction is complete.“
The installation is being carried out by a joint team of the main contractor Daisue Construction and Czech subcontractor A2 Timber. This is a rather unusual collaboration in Japan, as the local market is highly protectionist and does not usually allow foreigners into such projects. Despite the significant differences in the way of the work organization, the implementation of the national pavilion is nonetheless progressing rapidly. The Japanese can see from the cooperation so far that the Czechs know what they are doing and are pleasantly surprised by the speed and efficiency of the construction process.
Patrik Štancl, the construction manager of the CLT contractor from the A2Timber team, also praises the cooperation with his Japanese colleagues: „The Czech National Pavilion is not only a design success, but also an innovative and technically sophisticated project. When installed in an environment where earthquakes and typhoons are common, the utter precision of our work is crucial. The Japanese understand this better than anyone else and provide us with assistance in routine organizational matters as well as when something needs to be secured quickly.“
A team of approximately ten people, six Czechs and four Japanese operates on the site every day. Their work starts at six in the morning and finishes between five and six in the afternoon. They work six days a week, resting one day. The work is very demanding, with high temperatures persisting in Japan, although all work is carried out according to the agreed schedule. The construction manager has to plan the work with the weather in mind. Due to the size of the panels, it is not possible to assemble them when it is raining or windy. To plan the work, they also use the Czech Windy app, which is very popular in Japan. The construction process is also personally supervised by General Commissioner Soška, who is also on-site to deal promptly with any misunderstandings or problems that may arise.
The Czech National Pavilion will be the first wooden building of its kind without a steel structure in Japan. It is made mainly from Czech materials - wood from Czech forests and Czech art glass. The Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of the Environment, and the Ministry of Defence, specifically the state enterprise Lesy ČR (Forests of the Czechia), Vojenské lesy a statky ČR (Military Forests and Estates of Czechia) and the Krkonoše National Park are involved in the supply of wood. The cooperation on the national pavilion was announced by Minister Marek Výborný, Petr Hladík, and Jana Černochová at a press conference at the Země živitelka in České Budějovice this August.
The first containers with wooden structures left for Japan on 1 July 2024, and approximately forty more containers left during the summer, with the last containers being loaded in early September. All wood is transported to Japan by ship. From the Czechia, the containers always headed to Germany's largest port in Hamburg, from where they sailed for about 8-10 weeks to Osaka, Japan.
About Czech pavilion at EXPO 2025
In December 2022, after more than twenty years, the Office of the Czech Commissioner General announced an open anonymous architectural competition for the design of the national pavilion for EXPO 2025. A total of 38 teams entered the competition, from which an expert jury headed by world-renowned architect Eva Jiřičná selected the winning design in the shape of a glass spiral by Apropos Architects in March 2023. The load-bearing structure of the building will consist of modern wooden panels, while the façade will be made of art glass, which has a centuries-old tradition in Czechia. The National Pavilion will offer a worthy backdrop for the Czech participation in EXPO 2025, which will be held from April to October 2025 on the artificial island of Yumeshima in the Osaka Bay. The pavilion will house a permanent exhibition, a multifunctional auditorium, facilities for business meetings, a restaurant, a VIP lounge and a relaxation area in front of the pavilion with a view of the sea.
About Czech participation at EXPO 2025
Czechia as an independent state will participate in the World EXPO for the sixth time. Ondřej Soška, who won the tender of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic last spring with his concept and theme "Talent and Creativity for Life", has been the Commissioner General since September 2022. Czechia should present itself in Osaka not only with what the Japanese know very well and have long admired, such as Czech glass and classical music, but especially with Czech innovations, nanotechnologies, promising start-ups and regional talents.