Expo 2025 Osaka: Italy Pavilion structures completed 6 months before opening

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 17 - Architect Mario Cucinella and Commissioner General Mario Vattani today visited to verify the progress of the works on the Italy Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka.
    Six months before the official opening of the Universal Exhibition, which from 13 April 2025 will see 160 countries come together around the theme 'Designing Future Society for Our Lives', the structures of the Pavilion, made entirely of wood and designed by MCA-Mario Cucinella Architects together with the project management company Beyond Limits and the construction companies Nomura Co. and Nishio Rent All Co., have been completed according to schedule. Italy is thus among the first countries to have completed the basic structural works of its Pavilion.
    "Today we have taken an important step in the process of creating the Italy Pavilion: six months before the opening, we are proud to be able to announce the completion of the load-bearing structures of what is the largest wooden construction at Expo 2025 Osaka. A record that helps make our Pavilion, built entirely of wood from certified local supply chains, an emblem of sustainability and innovation. Together with Commissioner General Vattani, we visited the construction site to celebrate this significant milestone, which places Italy among the first countries to have completed this phase of the work", declared Cucinella, Founder & Design Director of MCA - Mario Cucinella Architects.
    "This occasion will be fundamental to offer the public an updated image of Italy, our technology and our innovation. For this reason, it will be important to bring the public to our Pavilion. Among the participating countries, we have the building with the most imposing wooden structure, visible even from a distance from various points of the site. It will offer visitors the opportunity to walk through the largest hanging garden of the entire Expo, which will offer a breathtaking view on every side", underlined Commissioner General for Italy at Expo 2025 Osaka, Amb. Vattani. "Italy is located in a strategic position on the Expo site, a few meters from the Grand Ring, a symbolic element of the Universal Exhibition designed by architect Fujimoto Sou and also made entirely of wood. The Italy Pavilion, with elegance and style, dialogues structurally and symbolically with the Ring from a privileged position. Thanks to a height specifically calculated with respect to that of the Ring, the garden becomes a natural stage where we will organize highly visible events, aimed at enhancing Italian creativity and the excellence of Made in Italy, which will be visible to the public present on the Ring as if from the stands of an elevated arena".
    The Italy Pavilion presents itself as a large hangar of Italian know-how that draws inspiration from the Ideal City of Renaissance origin and that, interpreting the theme "Art regenerates life", will host artistic, scientific, entrepreneurial and social experiments. The Pavilion is preparing to reveal to visitors a creative journey in three acts, each of which has its roots in places and experiences of which Italy has been an innovator. The heart of the structure is a large display case designed to accommodate the theater and the square, the exhibition and experiential hub of the Pavilion. On the roof, instead, an Italian garden will be hosted, populated by plants and works of art.
    Founded in 1992 in Paris by Mario Cucinella, MCA - Mario Cucinella Architects is based in Bologna and Milan and is made up of over 100 professionals. MCA specializes in architectural design that integrates environmental and energy strategies, with an internal R&D department that conducts research on sustainability issues. The studio has completed projects in Europe, China, Africa, the Middle East and South America. Among these: the Museum of Art, Luigi Rovati Foundation in Milan; the New Surgical and Emergency Center of the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan; the Church of Santa Maria Goretti in Mormanno; the New Rectorate of the Roma Tre University in Rome; One Airport Square in Accra, (Ghana); the new headquarters of NICE in Limeira (Brazil); the Sino-Italian Ecological and Energy Efficient Building, in Beijing (China). The studio is currently implementing around 50 projects, including: in Milan the MIND - Milano Innovation District masterplan, the SeiMilano mixed-use project, the Unipol Group Headquarters; in Aosta the Valle D'Aosta University Campus; Ferrari e-building in Maranello; the Italian Pavilion Expo 2025 Osaka; in Vienna two mixed-use towers "Viertel Zwei"; in Tirana, the MET Tirana Building. MCA collaborates with SOS - School of Sustainability Foundation, a school for young professionals and recent graduates that aims to provide them with the tools necessary to address environmental issues with an open, holistic and research-driven approach. The school was founded in 2015 by Mario Cucinella and is based in Milan.
    Expo 2025 will be held in Osaka from April 13 to October 13, 2025 under the theme "Designing Future Society for Our Lives".
    Italy's goal at Expo 2025 Osaka is to broaden and complete the image of Italy, making the world of art and culture aware of Italy's excellence in the field of high technology, science and research. Italy at Expo 2025 Osaka is a tool for growth diplomacy through which to promote internationalization for businesses and territories. Last August in Tokyo, at the press conference "Sailing Towards Expo 2025 Osaka" held during the Japanese leg of the Amerigo Vespucci World Tour, Vattani announced that the Farnese Atlas, the imposing marble work currently preserved at the MANN - National Archaeological Museum of Naples, will be at the center of the Italy Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka. The Italy Pavilion will have its own theatre space with a daily programme full of live events. Italy is a member of the Expo Steering Committee, the small group of countries that, together with the BIE - Bureau International des Expositions, follows the organisational phases of the Universal Exhibition.
    (ANSA).