World Expos: The Latest Architecture and News

The Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) announced yesterday, on Tuesday, November 28, that Riyadh, the capital city of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been selected to host the 2030 World Expo, by securing the necessary two-thirds majority of votes in the first round. Marking another milestone for the Gulf, following Dubai's Expo 2020 and Qatar's hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2022, this five-yearly event draws millions of visitors and investments. Under the theme, "The Era of Change: Together for a Foresighted Tomorrow", Expo 2030 Riyadh will run between 1 October 2030 and 31 March 2031.

Competing against South Korea's port city of Busan and Rome in Italy, Riyadh won the bid with 119 votes, while Busan received 29 votes, and Rome got 17 votes out of the 182 members of the Paris-based Bureau International des Expositions (BIE). Other explored subjects were the themes of “Transforming Our World, Navigating Toward a Better Future” by Busan and “People and Territories: Regeneration, Inclusion and Innovation”, for Rome.

The city of Osaka, Japan, has won the bid to organize the 2025 World Expo, an international event expected to draw in millions of visitors. Set to commence on April 13, 2025, and conclude on October 13, 2025, this marks Japan's second occasion as host, the prior instance being in 1970. Throughout their history, World Expos have been the place where new technologies and products are showcased and popularized, leading to technological advancements and innovative designs. For this event, Osaka has chosen the overarching theme of "Designing Future Society for Our Lives," with three subthemes further developing the concept: Saving Lives, Empowering Lives, and Connecting Lives. Architect Sou Fujimoto was selected as the Expo Site Design Producer, taking on the responsibility of creating the master plan and providing guidance to designers from participating countries.

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In 2018, the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE) announced that the Japanese city of Osaka won the bid to host the 2025 World Expo, an event expected to draw millions of visitors. The event will open on April 13, 2025, and close on October 13, 2025. This will be Japan’s second time hosting the event, as another World Expo was held in Osaka in 1970. The official theme for this edition is “Designing Future Society for Our Lives.” Architect Sou Fujimoto has been chosen as the Expo Site Design Producer of the event, becoming responsible for designing the master plan and directing the designers of the participating countries. As of March 24, 2023, 153 countries and regions and 8 international organizations have officially confirmed their participation in Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan.

Though architectural history is replete with bricks, stones, and steel, there is no rule that states that architecture must be ‘solid’. Sverre Fehn, one of the most prominent architects of postwar Norway, regularly made use of heavy materials like concrete and stone masonry in his projects [1]. In this way, his proposal for the Nordic Pavilion at the Osaka World Expo in 1970 could be seen as an atypical exploration of a more delicate structure. Representing a very different aspect of ‘Modernity’ than his usual work, Fehn’s “breathing balloon” pavilion stands not only in contradiction to Fehn’s design canon, but to that of traditional architecture as a whole.

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Now at the halfway point of the six month long World Expo in Milan, in which 145 countries are participating in a concentration of national spectacle surrounding the theme of "feeding the planet," Rotterdam's Nieuwe Instituut (HNI)—the centre for architecture in the Netherlands—is exhibiting an altogether more reflective display of national civic pride.

Rotterdam, which was blitzed and decimated during the Second World War, is a place well suited to host an exhibition whose underlying theme centres on the fragile, often precarious notion of national self-image. Following the war Rotterdam was forced to rebuild itself, carving out a new place on the world stage and reestablishing its importance as an international port. Now, seventy years later, Rotterdam is a very different place. In demonstrating just how delicate the construction of a tangible national identity can be this latest exhibition at the HNI offers up a sincere speculative base for self-reflection.

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