Expo 2025 EARTH MART
We designed a pavilion titled “EARTH MART” with Kundo Koyama, one of the producers of the Expo 2025, which is being held under the theme of “Designing Future Society for Our Lives”.
Many of the pavilions at this Expo use wood as the means to express “life,” but we went one step deeper and designed a structure using thatch. Thatch is said to have played an even more important role than wood in the natural cycles of forests in Japan.
Thatch is the dried stalks of plants such as silver grass and reeds. Roofing with thatch was the most common construction method for Japanese houses before World War II. It was long used on the roofs for houses in the Jomon era even, which is said to have begun in the 13th century B.C. It means that Japanese people have lived under and protected by thatch for over 3,000 years. Thatch also plays an important role in the natural cycle of the woods behind villages (called satoyama), and is said to have protected the biodiversity of satoyama. In this sense, thatch was an essential material that supported the sustainable lifestyle of the Japanese people.
However, after World War II, thatch disappeared rapidly from house roofs. Nowadays, those who want to build houses with thatch find it extremely difficult to get old of thatchers. We therefore wanted to cause a stir in the current state and started action to retrieve satoyama, stopping destruction of the rich nature there.
We designed the Japan National Stadium(2019) to use wood from each of Japan’s 47 prefectures to show the richness and diversity of Japan’s natural environment. Likewise, in this pavilion, thatch was made from reed and grass from five different locations across Japan. We applied the same thatching method as we did for Community Market Yusuhara (2010) in Yusuhara, where the thatch was layered in blocks, a detail that will enable the material to be recycled after the Expo period. Thatch has been recycled as feed and fertilizer since the Jomon Period, and with the blocks of thatch for EARTH MART, we wanted to share the wisdom of sustainability with the rest of the world.
Producer of the Signature Project: Kundo Koyama
Overall supervision: ORANGE AND PARTNERS CO., LTD.
Implementation production and operation: DENTSU INC., DENTSU LIVE INC.
Exhibition production: NOMURA Co., Ltd.
Video direction: SPECIAL REQUEST inc.
Art direction: Tamotsu Yagi Design
