Tokyo (SCCIJ) – The Swiss temporary and event construction company Nüssli has opened a Japan branch office in Osaka. Furthermore, the company received the construction license – a prerequisite to building the country pavilions for Switzerland, Austria, and Kuwait at the World Expo 2025 Osaka as a general contractor.
Nüssli will build the Switzerland pavilion the World Expo Osaka 2025.
Switzerland Pavilion
The establishment of the Japan office enables the Swiss company to work more closely with local companies and to take advantage of their expertise and short transport routes. Under the motto “Designing Future Society for Our Lives”, the next World Expo takes place on an island near Osaka city from April 13 to October 13, 2025. The new Osaka office is fully owned by Nüssli Switzerland and will deal with all projects related to Expo 2025.
Nüssli and its partners had won the tender for the design, construction and dismantling of the Swiss pavilion “La Suisse enchantée” which sets an example of sustainable architecture. As general contractor, Nüssli is responsible for project management and construction services. The architecture and spatial concept are by Manuel Herz Architekten. Bellprat Partner are developing the content concept as well as the exhibition and media design.
“We are very proud to continue our long tradition as execution partner of the Swiss Pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka. Despite this long Expo experience, however, the Swiss pavilion with its pneumatic, spherical construction will also offer us some tricky points,” admits Andy Böckli, CEO of Nüssli. Studio AA-Morf, a consulting office for architecture and urban design based in Tokyo, acts as local partner.
Nüssli also won the contract to construct the Austria pavilion at the World Expo Osaka 2025.
Working for Austria
Nüssli is also responsible for the construction of Austria’s expo pavilion. Its partners are BWM Designers & Architects and the company “facts and fiction”. With an exhibition area of 270 square meters, the Austrian pavilion will take visitors from the past to the future with music as the supporting medium. In a final show, visitors will compose the world of tomorrow together.
Stefan Sekiguchi, COO Special Projects at Nüssli, adds, “The pavilion shines with several unique aspects, such as the spiral sculpture rising spectacularly into the air. Such designs are highly complex and require the full range of our engineering knowledge and, in some cases, creative approaches.” This assignment is already the sixth time that Nüssli builds an expo pavilion for Austria.
As the third project at the World Expo 2025 and for the second time after Expo 2015 in Milano (Italy), Nüssli won the contract for the construction of the Kuwait pavilion. The Swiss company will act as a total contractor. The contract was signed at the Kuwaiti Embassy in Tokyo in September. Afterwards, a Kuwaiti delegation traveled on to Osaka to visit the new Nüssli office and team the following day and to tour the Expo site. The design of the pavilion will be presented at a later date.
Text: SCCIJ based on material of Nüssli; Photos: ©Via Nüssli
