Artistic rendition of the Nordic Pavilion for the 2025 World Exposition.
Photo courtesy of The Nordic Pavilion

TOKYO - The five countries of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden are teaming up with a joint pavilion at the 2025 World Exposition, a 17-meter-tall recyclable structure made of timber that will showcase their connection to nature and sustainability.

"We are a strong community together, and that's what we want to showcase to Japan...that we can even be stronger together and also with Japan," Lena Abrahamsson Lund, chief project director of the Nordic Pavilion, said in an interview during a related event in Tokyo in January.

The three-story, 1,200-square-meter facility, featuring screens made of rice paper, will introduce visitors to the Nordic lifestyle, nature and seasons while showcasing technologies supporting the green transition and other challenges.

It will also feature a rooftop restaurant offering Nordic cuisine, including salmon, with sponsorship from the Norwegian Seafood Council and major Danish food company Leverandorselskabet Danish Crown AmbA, they said. A 20-square-meter shop will sell items from each of the Nordic countries.

The rice paper screens are arranged in a whirling design, forming circles when viewed from above, reflecting the pavilion's "Nordic Circle" concept, which emphasizes connection and the "limitless potential" of the five Nordic countries, organizers said.

During the expo, each Nordic country will host unique events. Iceland plans a presentation on women's empowerment, as it has consistently ranked No. 1 in the World Economic Forum's Global Gender Gap Report.

Another expo official for Norway, which hosts the Nobel Peace Prize, also said at the Tokyo event that it would be "interesting if we can manage something" related to last year's laureate, Nihon Hidankyo, a leading Japanese group of atomic bomb survivors. A Swedish official said the country is also working on events referencing the Nobel Prize.

For the Finnish national day on June 12, organizers are hoping to prepare events featuring Santa Claus and the popular character Moomin, among others.

The pavilion, designed by internationally acclaimed Italian architect Michele De Lucchi and his studio AMDL Circle, will also feature a business center as the Nordic states seek to increase collaboration with Japan, Japanese companies and other countries taking part in the global event.

Materials used for the pavilion facility can be repurposed for use in hotels, stations or educational facilities once the event ends, according to organizers.

For the latest pavilion, organizers said they hope to attract 2.7 million visitors.

The five Nordic countries previously joined a World Exposition together with one pavilion in 2005 in Aichi Prefecture, they said.

Source:  kyodonews.net