i-Mesh for the Indonesia Pavilion at Expo 2025 Osaka

Rattan Forever. The infinite life of a universal weave beloved by designers, architects, and creators from every culture.

Nestled within the Grand Ring, with a fluid silhouette that echoes those of a boat and a fish, stands an architectural object that symbolizes a national identity: the Indonesia Pavilion. Intertwining forms and materials, the pavilion is framed by the motif of Wien Straw, the world’s most iconic and recognizable pattern.
A vessel that has chosen i-Mesh as both reference and homage to traditional rattan and the nation’s textile culture, interpreted with virtuosity and consistency, both indoors and outdoors.
Natural rattan defines its interior design, while for the façades exposed to intense climatic stress, materials capable of meeting the most demanding technical performance requirements have been selected.

Maximum variety, flexibility, versatility.

The boat and the pattern: blending historical identity with a vision for the future

In a country where the relationship with water defines rules, organization, and belonging, boats have always been the fil rouge of people’s everyday lives, a shared memory shaped by knowledge, skills, and traditions.
Thus, it is fitting that a ship represents the world’s largest archipelago at Expo 2025 Osaka, a vessel designed to endure and transform over time.
Indeed, in Indonesia, the boat embodies many meanings: it connects diverse communities, fosters local and international trade, and remains an object that most profoundly defines daily life.

Across the vast constellation of islands that bridge Southeast Asia and Oceania, humanity and boats are synonymous. Boats and ships are the forms, languages, and cultures of the archipelago, dialogues among communities and with the world itself. The radical silhouette of the Pavilion, inspired by the imposing design of a stylized hull, becomes both a symbol and a source of inspiration, an emblem of a visionary and sustainable outlook, the pride of an advanced nation that has learned to navigate toward the future amid the waves.

Sustainability and meaning, design and innovation.

Born of the sea, i-Mesh renews that original matrix from which it drew its inspirational thread, a story of architecture, art, and design. A narrative of Nature and Technology, of research and development, artisanal mastery, experimentation, and industrial production.

On both façades of this building, a tribute to a perfectly-shaped hull, the i-Mesh textures reflect sunlight, translating the language of rattan into contemporary technical expression.
Thus, like ships themselves, that pattern connects Indonesia to the rest of the world, across a scale of time and geography where everything is intertwined: sails, weaves, Viennese chairs, and high-end furnishings.

While its design embraces an expansive visual expression, i-Mesh was also chosen for its outstanding technical properties, exceptional durability, and fire resistance, reaffirming its success at Expo 2025 alongside the Italy Pavilion and the “Future of Life” Pavilion, as part of a material and symbolic journey from Osaka to Jakarta.

In search of balance

In technical jargon, it’s known as the balance of weights and loads — the pursuit of optimal performance, the harmony where stability meets efficiency.
The Pavilion embodies this pursuit: a balance among its structural components, between wooden textures and woven threads, between frames and tensile structures unfolding in sequences of evolving and intriguing vanishing points.

This complex architecture, a fusion of solidity and lightness, forms a designed shape, a symbol of a strong, stable, and harmonious future: the identity of a value system.
Largely illuminated by natural light, the Pavilion adheres to principles rooted in efficient resource use, environmental preservation, and a systemic approach to sustainability in thought, process, and design.

This begins with the concept itself and continues through the use of eco-compatible materials in floors, ceilings, and every construction element.
A key example is the use of Plana wood, a state-of-the-art material developed through renewable technology and composed of 60% rice husks, 30% recycled plastic, and 10% additives. A choice that ensures the implementation of the 10Rs: Rethink, Retrieve Energy, Reorganization, Replace, Reduce, Recycle, Reuse, Replant, Recovery, and Repair.

A symbolic Pavilion. The true and symbolic Power of untamed Nature.

Indonesia’s amphibious landmass — made up of 17,508 volcanic islands straddling the equator on both sides of the Wallace Line — rests upon wild, untamed Nature, its flora and fauna a kaleidoscope of species that have inspired countless legends, stories, and imaginations.
Home to hundreds of ethnic groups speaking dozens of languages, Indonesia celebrates an extraordinary richness of customs and cultural traditions. Its national motto — Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, “Unity in Diversity,” literally “Many, yet one” — expresses this essence perfectly.

Indonesia is a nation of diverse homelands, often in conflict, celebrated for its exceptional biodiversity ranking among the world’s largest, its ancient landscapes, and its millennia-old temples such as Borobudur and Prambanan.
With over 150 active volcanoes resting upon the Pacific, Eurasian, and Australian tectonic plates, Indonesia’s intimate coexistence with a living and trembling earth is deeply ingrained in its lifestyle, architecture, community spirit, traditions, and sacred beliefs.

The Pavilion’s commitment: “Thriving in Harmony: Nature, Culture, Future.”

Prosperity defines the nation’s vision for the future. Creating the conditions for harmony between Nature and Culture is the commitment with which Indonesia presents itself to the world. This commitment is embodied in a place and a structure consistent in form, technology, construction methods, and material selection — with i-Mesh at its core.

The Pavilion’s public program — a platform for economic and cultural diplomacy — expresses an extended vision of the future, one that unites craftsmanship and tradition, architecture, spirituality, and material culture.

Its common thread is a creativity that translates into exhibitions, objects, craftsmanship, applied arts, performances, and cultural events. A creativity that embraces the sense of limitation, the finite nature of resources, and their fragility, together with an ecological vision of development. A vision made of incremental innovations, research and experimentation, cross-sector and cross-economy hybridizations, new projects, solutions, and investments.