Trahan Architects, BRC Imagination Arts, ES Global and Alchemy have completed the USA Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan. Serving as a cultural outpost for the United States, the USA Pavilion at Expo 2025 celebrates contemporary American architecture, exhibition design, culture, and innovation, The USA Pavilion invites visitors to be immersed in a vibrant experience of the United States, featuring iconic views of the country, and exhibitions that celebrate the United States.
Expo 2025 is expected to receive millions of visitors over the course of its six-month duration. The USA Pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka will be Trahan Architects’ first built project outside of the United States and is the fifth time BRC Imagination Arts has created the USA Pavilion at an Expo; with this being the second time in Japan.
A welcoming gateway
Located prominently within Expo 2025’s Grand Ring, the USA Pavilion sits halfway between the Forest of Tranquility and the East Gate Entrance Plaza, serving as a visual gateway for all visitors. Open, grand yet minimalistic, the pavilion is inspired by natural and urban canyons. Two triangular buildings create a central plaza and serve as expansive wings with LED screens depicting iconic and dynamic images of American landmarks and landscapes.
Inspired by ancient Japanese footbridges, the plaza arches gently, creating a sense of balance while cultivating a unique visitor journey through the space. From west to east, the plaza narrows to a point, creating a sense of calmness with the architecture. At the rear of the pavilion, visitors find a moment of reprieve in the serenity garden where the pavilion’s two wings meet, allowing a sliver of natural light into a small garden.
At the heart of the USA Pavilion is a “floating” translucent cube – brightly illuminated and suspended above visitors – that acts as a threshold, inspired by Japanese torii gates, which transitions the pavilion’s active public plaza to its contemplative private courtyard. The translucent cube is an icon of the pavilion’s architecture and is instantly recognizable from the Grand Ring that encircles the Expo’s national pavilions.
The USA Pavilion showcases a robust and efficient approach to design and construction – using a bespoke steel system, modular timber façade and repurposed ES Global equipment to maximize cost efficiency. It exemplifies leadership in build, innovation, and design creativity.
Imagination and collaboration
The 2,880-square-meter (31,000-square-foot) pavilion’s interior exhibition program, crafted by BRC Imagination Arts, engages Expo visitors through a variety of experiential typologies. The USA Pavilion welcomes guests from around the world to “Imagine What We Can Create Together.”
Spark, the pavilion’s mascot, embodies the “spark of imagination and creativity” within everyone. This joyful animated character guides visitors through the fully immersive realms that showcase American opportunity, entrepreneurship, culture, creativity and innovation. Featuring groundbreaking innovations in agriculture, nanotechnology, advanced materials, and aerospace technologies, the USA Pavilion highlights America’s global leadership and commitment to empowering lives.
Visitors to the USA Pavilion engage every sense and experience how to learn, innovate, experience, explore and imagine together. An upbeat musical song, in English and Japanese, combined with visual storytelling inspires visitors, bringing them to the final exhibit, a space themed “Launch” that delivers the compelling message: “Join Us!” Together we can celebrate American excellence through the ingenuity of architecture, the awe-inspiring exhibits, the uplifting musical narrative, the powerful space (and beyond) images – all of them creating a spark to our imagination and helping shape a brighter future.
Trey Trahan, Founder, Trahan Architects: “The USA Pavilion is a beacon for the country, celebrating the best of American ideas on the world stage. In designing the Pavilion, we sought to create a bold, memorable building that was emblematic of the United States’ history of architectural innovation. Our design is centered around public space and visitor experience – architecture that is at once minimalist and monumental, inspired by its Japanese context.”
Ben Price, Founder, Alchemy: “The USA Pavilion is a standout Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka. We are proud to have assembled an incredibly talented, multidisciplinary, integrated design-build team to deliver this Pavilion to welcome the world. From the outset, we strived to create something exceptional. The result has exceeded our expectations, showcasing what can be when a client and project team work seamlessly toward a common goal.”
Christian Lachel, Chief Creative Officer, BRC Imagination Arts: “The USA Pavilion inspires visitors from around the world to ‘Imagine What We Can Create Together.’ The pavilion exhibition underscores America’s deep history of creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship, and its commitment to working together to address how we can empower lives and inspire future generations. Our ability to imagine is one of the most powerful tools we have.”
Olly Watts, Joint CEO ES Global: “The strength of the USA Pavilion lies in its clear demonstration of ingenuity – combining innovative venue design with cost-effective delivery on the global stage. By drawing on modular construction methods and repurposing existing equipment beyond Expo 2025, we’ve created a pavilion that reflects both architectural ambition and smart execution.”
Designed for the United States Department of State, USA Pavilion was designed by Trahan Architects and realized in collaboration with ES Global, Alchemy, and BRC Imagination Arts.
