Pasona Natureverse: Where Sustainable Architecture Meets Natural Creativity
Reviving History Through Design
There is something magical about witnessing an ancient fossil come to life through contemporary architectural design. This feeling can be experienced when visiting the Pasona Natureverse Pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka, where The Design Labo Studio presented an innovative vision that bridges nature and history in a single space.
Natural Source of Inspiration
The pavilion’s spiral shell was inspired by a prehistoric marine ammonite. These details are not merely decorative touches but reflect a careful study of nature and structures that have endured for millions of years, giving the building a sustainable character closely connected to its surrounding environment.
Architectural Engineering and Vision
The main structure was designed with a width of 43 meters to resemble a giant ammonite shell, accompanied by a smaller structure inspired by a marine shell. This design is crowned with a statue of a well-known cartoon character, adding a playful element and breaking the rigidity of the pavilion’s traditional form.
Capturing the Essence of Nature
The architects’ work went beyond merely borrowing a form; they also sought to express the essence of ancient marine creatures. Satoshi Itasaka, the Executive Director, explains the deeper meaning behind the design, noting that spiral shells have changed very little over nearly 400 million years. This consistency across ages, despite repeated mass extinctions, makes them a symbol of ongoing life and fully evolved organisms.
Architecture as a Journey Through Time
Since the exhibition’s theme focuses on life, the designers adopted the spiral shell as a symbol and created a pavilion that allows visitors to experience the relationship between humans and nature and explore the concept of life’s continuity. Here, the design’s goal is not only to create a visually appealing landscape but also to tell a story spanning geological time, where architecture becomes a medium to understand nature and its historical depth.
Nature-Friendly Design
What makes the Pasona Natureverse Pavilion unique is its collaboration with nature rather than resistance to it. The building relies on an innovative water-based cooling system, where a thin layer of water covers the structure’s surface to reduce dependence on traditional air conditioning. Additionally, the spiral shape helps collect and recycle rainwater, which is later used as greywater throughout the building, reflecting a sustainable approach fully integrated with the environment.
Thoughtful Visitor Experience
The pavilion’s walkthrough experience was meticulously designed. It consists of two shell-shaped structures, each containing a series of interactive spaces. These spaces aim to explore visitors’ physical, mental, and social well-being. The pavilion is divided into three distinct zones:
- History of Life – introducing visitors to the evolution of life through the ages.
- Body and Mind – exploring the balance between physical and mental health.
- Connections – understanding social relationships and their impact on humans.
Each zone features a variety of interactive and digital exhibits, making the visit a comprehensive educational experience that blends architecture, modern technologies, and nature.
Interactive Exhibits Bridging Science and Art
Among the pavilion’s standout exhibits is a tree-shaped sculpture depicting the history of evolution, as well as a lab-grown heart created using biological materials and bioengineering.
Combining Learning with Surprise
Executive Director Satoshi Itasaka explains the pavilion’s content, noting that visitors within this large space encounter dynamically moving LED boxes, can observe a heart generated from iPS cells, and explore an area offering a glimpse into the world of microorganisms in soil. This arrangement aims to blend elements of surprise with learning, providing an enjoyable and informative educational experience simultaneously.
From Temporary Building to Sustainable Cultural Center
The pavilion’s story becomes even more fascinating, as it is not just a temporary exhibit destined for demolition after the event. The structure was designed with a width of 43 meters to be easily dismantled, featuring a steel framework equipped with spherical joints and covered by a stretched synthetic white membrane.
After the exhibition concludes, the pavilion will be relocated to Awaji Island to become a cultural center, giving it a meaningful second life and transforming a temporary design into a long-term sustainable project. This reflects the value of reuse and flexibility in modern architecture.
The Pavilion at Sunset: Sustainable Beauty Coming to Life
The Pasona Natureverse Pavilion transforms dramatically after sunset, when color-changing light strips illuminate the edges of the shell, enhancing the projected light effects. At these moments, the building becomes a glowing beacon that almost seems alive, radiating a soft light that makes the spiral form even more enchanting and captivating.
Sustainability and Beauty in One
What sets this project apart is its proof that sustainable design does not have to be dull or purely functional. The Design Labo Studio has created an environmentally responsible design that also evokes emotion. Executive Director Satoshi Itasaka notes that nature-inspired forms are not only structurally strong and stable but inherently beautiful, adding an artistic and spiritual dimension to the experience.
Architecture as a Meditation on Time and Nature
The Pasona Natureverse Pavilion represents something deeper than just a clever building. It is an architectural meditation on time, evolution, and humanity’s place within the natural world. By drawing inspiration from creatures that have survived for millions of years, the designers created a space that gives visitors a sense of both humility and hope.
Often, buildings seem disconnected from their environment, yet this pavilion provides a model of architecture that mirrors nature, telling a story, respecting the planet, and inspiring genuine wonder. This type of design reflects a forward-thinking, sustainable vision and offers an important lesson on how architecture can bridge artistic creativity and environmental stewardship, an aspect increasingly vital in our current era.
✦ ArchUp Editorial Insight
The Pasona Natureverse Pavilion undoubtedly captures attention with its nature-inspired design and use of environmental innovations, while the interactive spaces and spiral motifs create a sense of immersion in natural history. However, some visitors may feel that the strong emphasis on form and visual impact occasionally outweighs practical functionality or the flow of movement within the pavilion. Additionally, reliance on interactive technologies and complex lighting may make the pavilion experience costly to maintain and challenging to replicate in other contexts. Despite these considerations, the project continues to provide an inspiring glimpse into the possibilities of sustainable design and sparks visitors’ curiosity about the relationship between humans and nature.
Prepared by the ArchUp Editorial Team
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