Over 184 days, from April 13 to October 13 2025, Yumeshima Osaka will come alive for World Expo 2025. Bringing together more than 150 countries, Expo seeks to open channels of global communication and innovation to address issues facing humankind that transcend geographic borders. A noble and essential goal, Australia’s pavilion will be a sensory experience designed to express a modern, diverse Australia rooted in the sustainable essence of Country.

The result of many months of conversations, workshops and design iteration between global architecture, interior, masterplanning and brand-experience studio Buchan and Indigenous cultural advisor Karrda, the Australian pavilion and the overall exhibition design is at once an innovative architectural structure and an immersive, sensory journey. Inspired by the narrative theme of ‘chasing the sun’, the vibrant colours and multi-cultural dynamic of Australia, the flow of song lines and the eucalyptus tree, the pavilion is so much more than a physical structure representing the richness of Australia on the world stage. 

Taking people on a physical and metaphorical journey

From a programmatic perspective, the Australian pavilion was developed around the narrative theme of ‘chasing the sun’, which is a direct response to the main Expo theme, ‘designing future society for our lives’. For Nataly Ernst, project architect at Buchan, the theme “encapsulates Australia’s connection to land and its resilience and collaborative nature in embracing ingenuity, optimism and opportunity for a better future”. 

“The sun symbolises the warmth and energy and optimism of the Australian people. It has drawn the world to Australia inspiring us to new ideas, ways of living, and so to follow the sun is to follow our dreams,” Ernst says.

Ernst and her team wove the theme into the exhibition design across every physical and sensory touchpoint, guiding visitors on a journey through the pavilion that offers an experience akin to being on Country. As people move through the space, they’ll be chasing the sun across the land, sky and water, moving from day to night and between the real and the surreal. 

A canvas for Australian stories on a global stage 

For Barbara Bynder, anthropologist, member of the Noongar community and one of the founding members of Karrda, the pavilion provides a canvas for sharing Australian stories and culture and showcasing the country’s creativity and ingenuity.

“When we started talking about the vibrant colours and wildflowers of Australia, we came to a beautiful picture of a pink gum blossom opening, the rich red soil and the ever-changing colours of the ocean from north to south,” Bynder says. 

“The focus on colours came about because we started talking about vibrancy and Australia’s multicultural society. What we’re trying to say, through the use of the colours of Australia — is that we are a multicultural society. We have colour in food and culture. All of this is part of our vibrancy as a growing, emerging, modern country.”

As cultural advisors, Bynder and her colleague Farley Garlett foreground the importance of unified stories, recognising that Indigenous culture is not homogenous. “In our role as Indigenous consultants it is our obligation and responsibility to ensure that authenticity of the translation, presentation and representation of Indigenous culture for the World Expo Exhibition 2025 is a unified story that provides a narrative inclusive of all societies across Australia,” says Bynder and Farley Garlett in the Australian Pavilion Indigenous Content Plan. 

To achieve this vitally important task, Bynder and the Karrda team worked closely and collaboratively with Buchan, building a foundation of trust and cultural safety, which Ernst says was an essential aspect of the project’s success. 

“Our team was really thankful to Barbara and Farley for all their time, in many, many conversations, to bring Indigenous culture closer to us and explain very important principles,” Ernst says. “They explained to the team what Country and sun mean for Indigenous people, further explaining the principles of caring for Country and how deeply this is embedded in all Indigenous people and cultures throughout Australia.

One aspect of Indigenous generational and cultural knowledge that came to the surface over the course of conversations was the significance of song lines, which Bynder describes as “travel[ing] across Country”. Through ancient song lines, knowledge has been shared between individuals and clans for tens of thousands of years, and continues to be shared to this day. 

“We designed a framework that was based on the structure that song lines take, and how they travel across Country,” says Bynder. “We applied that theory to the design within the pavilion so that we could keep that flow happening. The purpose was to ground the physical structure, and how people will walk through the building in the Indigeneity of Australia.”

Ancient knowledge and wisdom inspire a brighter future

The significance of this knowledge sharing, and the way it has been embedded into the design of the pavilion cannot be overstated. It is not every day that an opportunity for the rest of the world to engage with Australia’s physical beauty while learning about its culture and achievements presents itself.

“Architects use Expo as a creative platform to explore new materials and building methodologies,” Ernst explains. “With Expo 2025’s focus on solving global challenges, regenerative design and sustainability will be at the fore. Ideas that we see at Expo 2025 will go on to be influential in the future.”

Viewed through the lens of regenerative design and sustainability, overlaid with song lines and caring for Country, the pavilion becomes far more than architecture; it is a physical manifestation of the many exciting potential futures that arise when modern innovation is thoughtfully fused with ancient Indigenous knowledge.

This level of cohesion within the design means that every element has been carefully considered, with the vibrant colours of Australia’s flora and fauna informing the material and sensory direction of the exhibition design as well as the structural form of the pavilion itself. 

Articulating a bold narrative through structure and materials

This conceptual narrative finds architectural expression in the tensile structure that faces the main concourse of the Expo, which takes inspiration from the quintessentially Australian eucalyptus tree. 

“With its shape and colours, the eucalyptus tree is symbolic of all of Australia’s flora and landscape, Australia’s diversity and the resilience of the Australian people,” Ernst adds. 

“We wanted to find something that’s present, diverse and different across all of Australia. The eucalypt thrives through challenging conditions. It’s mastering adaptation and evolution through resilience, regeneration and regrowth.

“We’ve taken the inspiration from the eucalyptus as an expression of today’s global challenges that our world population is facing and how as a society, through resilience, adaptation and innovation, we can thrive and provide a better life and future for our next generations.”

However, visitors won’t encounter a pale timber structure with layers of peeling bark. The pavilion, which is currently under construction, utilises modular steel overlaid with a temporary building fabric that acts as a tensile membrane. By using a modular construction system developed by ES Global and sourcing reusable, recyclable or natural materials locally, the design explores the concepts of circularity, sustainability and responsibility to the planet. 

The emphasis on treading lightly on the Earth, which has become an increasingly omnipresent concern in architectural practice, has been practised by Indigenous cultures for millennia. With this in mind, Buchan’s design for the Australian Pavilion seeks to communicate what it is to connect with and care for Country in subtle, suggestive ways. 

On the one hand, the philosophy of Country is articulated through design details, material selection and construction methodologies. On the other hand, Country, in all its forms — from land to sea to sky — is given a strong powerful voice through the creation of a visceral visitor experience. Country and Australia is more than a place. It’s a feeling.

Revisit Design: Building on Country, the second book in a series that offers an introduction to Indigenous knowledge and its application to the present day.