Japan
Kengo Kuma & Associates
Fernando Guerra
Portugal and Japan share a maritime soul, shaped by the ocean and connected since the Age of Discoveries, when Portuguese navigators first reached Tanegashima. At Expo Osaka 2025, this shared heritage becomes architecture, not by representing the sea, but by making it felt. On an island in the Seto Inland Sea, the Portugal Pavilion questions how water, so fluid and intangible, can take form. The answer is a sensory space, where ropes once used in navigation are transformed into living mesh, animated by wind and light in constant, rhythmic motion.
This vertical sea redefines architecture as something that breathes and moves. Free from rigid volumes, the pavilion unfolds as a light and fluid structure. It exchanges weight for presence, creating an experience suspended between breeze, rhythm, and light. More than a building, it is a meeting point: between tradition and future, Portugal and Japan, the earth and the horizon.
