UK pavilion's aluminum skin by WOO recalls industrial heritage at expo 2025 osaka

WOO architects & es global present uk pavilion at expo 2025 osaka

As Expo 2025 Osaka officially kicks off, the UK Pavilion opens its doors under the theme Come Build the Future — a celebration of British creativity. The structure, designed by London-based WOO architects, is conceived with a formal clarity that reinforces the exploration of heritage and innovations in the nation from the Industrial Revolution to the digital age, conveyed through an angular, modular form.

Clad in a pixelated skin of folded, perforated aluminum panels, the facade subtly shifts with daylight and transforms at night to reveal a glowing Union Jack. This playful surface animated by light nods to the evolution of early programmable technology, such as punch cards, looms, and binary code, while linking the textile industries that fueled industrial growth with Britain’s continued leadership in gaming, digital design, and systems thinking. Set along a water plaza in Japan’s Yumeshima Island, the pavilion’s terraces and gardens also take cues from Britain’s rural topography, with layered platforms and shaded seating evoking rolling hills and natural clearings.

all images © Hufton+Crow

celebrating british industrial heritage & digital age innovations

Inside, the visitor journey unfolds across exhibition galleries, planted courtyards, tea rooms, and a rooftop terrace bar. The team at WOO architects has devised a spatial arrangement that is intuitive and flowing with no fixed path, though there is a strong emphasis on legibility and sequence. The exhibitions, curated by Immersive International, draw connections between British design, science, and culture, from the steam engines of the 19th century to the algorithms powering AI today. Even the Pavilion’s mascot, PIX, is integrated into the experience through augmented reality, inviting interaction without dominating the visual language of the space.

The UK Pavilion decidedly uses abstraction and nuance to tell its story. The architectural form borrows from the logic of punched cards and programmable systems — data-driven, repeatable, and open to interpretation — subtly revealing the UK’s long-standing relationship with pattern, structure, and code. Revealed first as perforations in the volume’s facade, these conceptual underpinnings are further brought to life at night when layers of light gently echo the pixelation of early computer graphics while casting patterns across the surrounding gardens.

UK Pavilion opens its doors as a celebration of British creativity

a modular facade envisioned for reuse

Aluminium panels that have been recycled and locally sourced where possible form the skin of the UK Pavilion, creating a facade that is expressive, technical, and pragmatic. The modular steel structure is lightweight and demountable, designed with ease of reuse and circularity in mind, reinforcing Expo 2025 Osaka’s theme, Designing Future Society for Our Lives. Developed in partnership with ES Global, the frame can be dismantled and reassembled elsewhere after the six-month run of Expo 2025 Osaka.