The Theme Pavilion is founded on a simple yet profound idea:
All life is connected—with plants at its center.
Through experiences grounded in the latest scientific research, visitors are invited to explore the relationships linking plants to all forms of life on Earth, including our own.
Yet the experience is not meant to end within the pavilion. We hope that your visit will bring plants closer to your everyday life and inspire small, meaningful actions beyond this space. Each visitor will receive a piece of seed paper®—paper embedded with seeds. When planted at home, the seeds will begin to grow.
By sharing photographs of these plants as they sprout and flourish, they will become part of a living artwork connected to the exhibition. In this way, the work continues to evolve together with its participants. Through this shared and evolving experience, we hope to create a new “landscape of tomorrow”—together, beginning here in Yokohama.

The Origin of an ART + TECH Producer

— What does an “ART + TECH Producer” do?

Sugiyama

Simply put, my work is to create experiences that people can only have by visiting a particular place. Art raises new questions through free and imaginative expression. Technology gives form to those ideas through the latest innovations.
By bringing these two together, I call my role an ART + TECH Producer. In a world where efficiency often makes places look increasingly alike, I want to create destinations that people feel compelled to visit—even from afar. My role is to transform spaces themselves into works of art and to generate truly unique experiences.

Photo: Bunsaku Nakagawa

— What inspired you to pursue this career?

Sugiyama

The starting point goes back to my grandfather, who was a painter. As a child, I watched him happily painting in his studio from morning until night, and I thought, what a wonderful profession an artist must be.
I also aspired to become an artist. During my student years, I carried out projects such as projecting videos onto city buildings, using urban space itself as a stage. However, altering public spaces freely is not permitted.
Through those experiences, I came to understand both the challenges of “free expression” and the immense talent required to stand alongside top artists. At that point, I shifted my perspective. I thought: if there are limits to expression, perhaps I should be the one who creates the space where expression can happen. By designing the environment itself, I could provide artists with a vast canvas to fully unleash their creativity. The excitement of filling an empty site with entirely new forms of expression remains the driving force behind my work today.

Photo: Bunsaku Nakagawa

— Which project became a major turning point in your career?

Sugiyama

A challenge that has consistently guided my work is how to liberate artistic expression from the two-dimensional world of screensand bring it into three-dimensional space. Within that trajectory, my experience at theExpo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan,was particularly significant.
I worked alongside film director Naomi Kawase, the producer of the Signature Pavilion “INOCHI no Akashi.” As Chief Planning Director, I helped shape the project.
Expositions are often thought of as places where answers are presented. In our pavilion, however, we did not display objects. Instead, in a space resembling a cinema, one visitor in the venue and another person somewhere in the world would meet for the first time and engage in a ten-minute dialogue through the screen. What unfolded in real time was an uneditable documentary of human interaction.
At first, the participants were often nervous. Yet as they exchanged words, they gradually opened their hearts. The shifting atmosphere was shared by the audience, the speakers, and the staff alike—everyone holding their breath in the same space.
Over the course of the Expo, this program was conducted more than 1,500 times, and many visitors were moved to tears. It reaffirmed something profound: when people encounter real lives and genuine emotions, they are deeply moved. The Expo provided a powerful stage for that realization.

©LESLIE KEE

A New Challenge: GREEN × EXPO 2027

— What kind of exhibition are you aiming to create for GREEN × EXPO 2027?

Sugiyama

The central theme of the pavilion is: “All life is connected — with plants at the center.” We tend to view the world from a human-centered perspective. Yet the real world is sustained by countless other forms of life, particularly plants. Building on what I learned at the Osaka Expo about the power of authentic experiences, this pavilion invites visitors to encounter that interconnectedness through the lens of plants. If this experience encourages visitors to reflect on sustainability, even in small ways, we will have achieved something meaningful.
The exhibition will include immersive spaces that allow visitors to experience the hidden world beneath the soil, as well as visual installations that make the timescale of plants visible through advanced imaging technologies. These are experiences that can only be fully appreciated by being physically present at the venue. For this project, we are also collaborating with the NHK Groupto liberate the traditionally flat medium of television into spatial form. We hope visitors will feel the overwhelming experiential power created when imagery and space merge together.

The post Seeking the Landscapes of Tomorrow first appeared on テーマ館.

The Themed Pavilion stands as one of the defining symbols of the Expo.
The most distinctive feature lies in its intricate and original form—an assembly of interlocking timber elements that creates a dynamic and expressive spatial experience. The moment you step inside, you will be enveloped in the warmth of wood, while the architecture itself evokes anticipation for the exhibition it contains.
This is a space shaped by the skill and dedication of countless craftspeople.
We invite you to experience this “landscape of tomorrow”, brought into being through their craft and passion.

Strategy Drawn in the Sky, Composure Rooted on Site

— What do you value most in the field of making things?

Nakamura

Over the past 25 years, I have primarily worked on high-rise construction projects. As a site director, my role is to coordinate the team of supervisors and oversee the entire operation. Delivering a high-quality building safely and within schedule is essential—but just as important is creating an environment in which every individual feels a sense of purpose and pride.

What may appear to be personal touches—playing background music in the site office, tending bonsai, even keeping an axolotl—are all part of this approach. These elements help create a sense of ease, which in turn allows us to remain attentive and focused across every aspect of the site.

We also hope that those who visit the site will come away with a renewed appreciation for the construction profession. To that end, we believe it is essential that we ourselves take genuine joy in the act of making.

— What led you to pursue a career in construction?

Nakamura

It began with a childhood fascination with tower cranes. Seeing them rise alongside buildings, I was captivated by their scale and movement. I wondered how such massive machines were dismantled once construction was complete.
The process, I later learned, was remarkably intricate.
A tower crane first assembles a slightly smaller crane. That crane is then used to dismantle the original. The process continues step by step, with progressively smaller cranes, until finally the smallest components are taken apart by hand and transported by elevator.
This “relay of dismantling,” unfolds the course of about three months, as the tower crane is taken apart step by step, revealed to me the depth and ingenuity of temporary construction planning, which became a decisive inspiration for my career.

A Challenge with No Margin for Error — Constructing a Monumental Puzzle

— This is your first experience with large-scale timber construction. What was your initial reaction?

Nakamura

To be honest, my first thought was: “Is this really possible?”
The key material in this project is CLT (Cross-Laminated Timber)—an engineered wood product composed of layered boards oriented in alternating directions. It offers both structural strength and environmental performance　and is attracting attention as a next-generation building material.

However, its application in the Themed Pavilion is highly unconventional. Most buildings are based on clear linear reference axes, but this structure has none. Instead, CLT panels must be assembled at irregular angles throughout the entire form.
In typical construction, physical models are used to study assembly methods. In this case, we determined that such an approach would be insufficient. We began by creating models using 3D printing, carefully testing how to assemble the structure without deviation.

Plant, Harvest, Build — A 50-Year Cycle Sustaining Future Forests

— There seems to be a connection between the Expo’s theme and Obayashi’s approach to forestry. Could you elaborate?

Nakamura

Tree harvesting is often seen as environmental destruction. However, simply preserving forests is not enough to achieve decarbonization.
Trees absorb CO₂ most actively during their growth phase. As they mature, this capacity gradually declines. That is why we value a cyclical approach aligned with the life stages of trees.
Trees grown over 50 years are harvested and used as building materials in our cities. In their place, new saplings are planted and nurtured for the next 50 years. This cycle allows forests as a whole to maintain a consistently high capacity for carbon absorption.
The CLT used in this pavilion is part of that ongoing cycle of life.
The completion of a building is not the end, but rather a point within a much longer continuum—one that extends 50 or even 100 years into the future. If visitors come to see wooden architecture through this lens, we would consider that a meaningful outcome.

The post Craft and Passion Shaping the “Landscape of Tomorrow” first appeared on テーマ館.

At first glance, the Themed Pavilion may appear to take on an unfamiliar form.
Yet within each element resides the quiet logic of nature.
Emerging from a careful reading of the local landscape of Kamiseya, this architecture proposes a new expression of timber construction.
As if entering a great tree, we invite you to move through the space and experience the gentle sensation of being immersed in this place’s natural richness.

The Vision Behind the Design Supervision

— How did you feel when you were invited to take on this role?

Araki:

International expositions offer a rare environment where bold and experimental ideas are welcomed. As someone drawn to new and challenging endeavors, I was genuinely excited when I was approached about this project.
At the heart of this pavilion is the challenge of creating a large-scale timber space using CLT (Cross-Laminated Timber)—an innovative, environmentally conscious material. I felt a strong desire to see the vision drawn in the design fully realized at architectural scale, and I continue to visit the site regularly to follow its progress.

Architectural Intelligence Inspired by Plant Strategies

— What inspired the pavilion’s distinctive form?

Araki:

The design began with the idea of “architecture like a plant”—or even “architecture as a living organism.”
I have long been fascinated by the forms and systems found in nature. As a child, I would spend hours observing forests on my way home from school.
These early experiences, along with insights gained from traditional Kesen carpenters encountered during post-disaster reconstruction projects in Tohoku, became key sources of inspiration.
Their traditional techniques reveal a deep structural logic: beams supporting the roof are arranged so that they gradually become smaller toward the top, reducing weight and increasing stability.
This principle—placing heavier elements below and lighter ones above—ultimately led to a form that echoes the natural structure of a tree: a strong trunk branching upward into increasingly delicate extensions.

Beam Concept
(Lower levels are thicker and longer; upper levels become thinner and shorter)
Illustration for reference only.

— We understand there is also a unique philosophy behind the underground structure.

Araki:

Yes. Even in the foundation—the point where building meets earth—we sought inspiration from plant life.
In conventional construction, foundations often cover the ground entirely with concrete. In this project, however, we minimized the foundation footprint wherever possible, limiting it to areas that would not affect the indoor environment.
This approach not only reduces material use and environmental impact but also allows the soil to remain continuous. By doing so, we aim to echo the underground networks of plants—their roots extending, connecting, and sharing nutrients beneath the surface.
Leaving portions of the ground exposed, without concrete, presented unprecedented challenges. Yet we believe that such careful attention to detail is what ultimately gives rise to truly comfortable and meaningful spaces.

©KENGO KUMA & ASSOCIATES

©KENGO KUMA & ASSOCIATES

Foundation Concept
(Comparison between the full-slab foundation and the strip foundation used in this project)
Illustration for reference only.

— How does this architecture harmonize with the environment of Kamiseya?

Araki:

A tree’s form—its roots, trunk, and branches—is shaped by the specific conditions of the land in which it grows.
This architecture follows the same principle.
By closely reading the site—its topography, prevailing winds, and patterns of light—the form of the pavilion gradually emerged.
For instance, winds at this site often flow from south to north. In response, the first layer of structural columns is arranged like a flowing current, allowing air to pass smoothly through the building.
Additionally, vegetation planted on the southern side creates a cooling effect through evapotranspiration, forming a natural ventilation system.
Design, in this sense, becomes a process of responding to countless environmental factors—much like a tree adapting its form as it grows.

©KENGO KUMA & ASSOCIATES

Column Concept
(From south to north, the airflow appears like a flowing river)
Illustration for reference only.

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