kengo kuma's qatar pavilion in osaka highlights qatari ships and japanese joinery

the Qatar Pavilion is anchored in Maritime Memory

As Expo 2025 Osaka unfolds under the theme ‘Designing Future Society for Our Lives,’ the Qatar Pavilion by Kengo Kuma & Associates introduces an architectural meditation on dualities: land and sea, tradition and innovation, Qatar and Japan. Located on the waterfront site of Yumeshima Island, the pavilion brings together the fluidity of fabric, the solidity of timber, and the stories etched into coastlines, both real and remembered. See designboom’s previous coverage here!

The pavilion, photographed by Iwan Baan, comes together in the form of a sweeping architectural gesture shaped like a dhow, the traditional sailing vessel once vital to trade and pearling in the Arabian Gulf. Its curving white canopy, suspended from a finely joined timber frame, evokes both a sail catching the breeze and the tensile calm of Japanese and Qatari wood craftsmanship. The architects note that the dhow is more than symbolic. It is a shared vernacular that represents human-scale exchange across water.

The Qatar Pavilion evokes a traditional dhow sailing vessel | image © Iwan Baan

Kengo Kuma Blends Heritage Through Craft

Kengo Kuma & Associates’ Qatar Pavilion is a celebration of construction methods as much as form at Expo 2025 Osaka. The pavilion incorporates timber joinery techniques drawn from both Qatari and Japanese traditions, creating a structure that appears both ancient and futuristic. According to the design team, this synthesis of techniques reflects a respect for cultural continuity and a shared sensibility rooted in the sea.

The architects set the tone with an entry framed by poetic verse. Outside the pavilion, vitrines display poems by Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed bin Thani and Ahmed bin Hassan Al-Muhannadi, printed against coastal imagery. The visuals replicate the gradient of the Gulf’s waters — deep indigo fading to aquamarine — as seen by sailors returning to shore.

A sequence of transitions define the experience, as the interior leads visitors from the maritime realm into the arid terrain of inland Qatar. A series of sand samples, each distinct in tone and texture, conjure the deserts that lie beyond the coast. Wall graphics reference the petroglyphs of Al Jassasiya, carved into stone by generations of inhabitants.

the lightweight structure uses Qatari and Japanese joinery techniques | image © Iwan Baan

visitors to expo 2025 Osaka Move from Sea to Sand

At Expo 2025 Osaka, Kengo Kuma & Associates brings anthropological depth to the Qatar Pavilion’s exhibit in a section titled Land & Sea – Navigating the Journey. Curated by the National Museum of Qatar, it spotlights the ghawaseen (pearl divers), altawash (merchants), and the women who maintained cultural life along the coast.

The team extends the pavilion’s function beyond exhibition, designing a flexible second floor featuring a majlis (meeting room) and a library curated by Atlas Bookstore. Furniture by Qatari designer Maryam Al Homaid and collaborative artworks by Yousef Ahmed and Hayaki Nishigaki underscore a broader narrative of Qatar–Japan cultural exchange.

Qater’s national identity is articulated down to the details, with pavilion staff dressed in uniforms by Qatari fashion house TERZI. The Pavilion’s visual identity is a collaborative effort involving QC+, Studio Noor Saad, and Qatar’s Government Communications Office — emphasizing design not as branding, but as cultural articulation.