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Kengo Kuma designs the Portuguese pavilion at the Osaka Expo 2025

22/02/2024

Suspended ropes and recycled nets mark the volume designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma and his studio (KKAA) for the Portuguese pavilion at next year's Osaka World Expo. If we add to these materials the suspended upper plaza that evokes a wave and will probably become the building's trademark, we have all the elements to associate it with the theme it proposes - the oceans in general and, more specifically, the sustainable management of its resources, promoting scientific research and the conservation of marine biodiversity.


Kengo Kuma is certainly no stranger to Portugal. In 2019, he won the competition to design the expansion of the gardens of the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon and the new entrance to the CAM-Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian, which will reopen to the public on 20th September 2024.


According to the architect, the museum can be a "wise example of the future as coexistence with the Earth and us", taking inspiration from nature and its relationship with architecture. In a recent No País dos Arquitectos podcast, Sara Nunes interviews Kengo Kuma and Rita Topa, architect at Kengo Kuma Associates, to talk about the expansion of the gardens and museum, along with the mission of architecture and the role of the architect, processes, and work references developed for the project.





Kengo Kuma has another project in progress in Portugal: the requalification of the Municipal Matadouro do Porto, developed in partnership with the Portuguese office OODA.


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