With less than a month to go until the opening of Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan on April 13, we are now getting detailed glimpses of what awaits us at this grand world fair. Panasonic is one of the first exhibitors to complete its pavilion ahead of the opening, and from the previews, it looks spectacular.
Named ‘The Land of Nomo’, Panasonic’s pavilion perfectly embodies the Expo’s theme, ‘Designing Future Society for Our Lives’. More importantly, the construction is guided by the principles of sustainability.
The striking structure is primarily built from recycled materials salvaged from used home appliances. In total, the Land of Nomo has repurposed 97.1 short tons of recycled steel and 1.2 tons of copper, as well as reused glass from approximately 9,200 drum-type washing machines. Outside, you’ll find an early model of a glass-type perovskite solar cell, reimagined as an installation by artist Kaede Wajima.
Holding pride of place inside the pavilion is the interactive ‘Unlock Experience Area’, designed primarily to inspire children by stimulating their senses and igniting their imagination. This is complemented by ‘Daichi’, an exhibition exploring new and innovative ideas for building a better society.
We expect the ‘Unlock Experience Area’ to be the pavilion’s main draw. Here, cutting-edge technology involving light, video, sound and air converges to create an immersive, multi-sensory environment. Key highlights include the 7m by 3.5m ‘Waterfall = Mist’ installation, a hologram-like screen made of ultra-fine mist on which videos are projected, and the ‘Vortex Ring’ installation, which creates 1.3m-wide rings of mist that descend from the ceiling. These mind-bending spectacles look like they come straight out of a sci-fi movie.
As you interact with these installations, your responses and facial expressions will be captured and analysed using Panasonic’s proprietary sensitivity model. This data will help classify you into one of four personality strengths and match you with one of eight environments in which you’d thrive, and then visualised as a unique butterfly that is unleashed in the exhibition space.
For those who can’t attend in person, Panasonic plans to release a couple of features that people can experience wherever they are. This includes an online co-creation platform as well as an exclusive animation featuring artist Sakurako Ohara singing the theme song, ‘Yume wa Tsubasa’ (roughly translates to 'Dreams are Wings').
For more information about Panasonic’s Osaka Expo pavilion, the Land of Nomo, visit the website. You’ll find details on how to book tickets to the Osaka Expo here.
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