Predominantly bad news is currently dampening the general mood, especially in the political arena. But there is also hope: this year's EXPO 2025 in Osaka has the motto "Designing Future Society for Our Lives" and presents numerous new models and ideas for a good life.
The photo above shows Queen Victoria opening the first World's Fair in 1851 at the Crystal Palace in London's Hyde Park. The long-ago date underscores the significance and success of this event. Since then, World's Fairs have been held in New York, Paris (Eiffel Tower), Chicago, Brussels (Atomium), Milan, Helsinki, Jerusalem, Dubai, Shanghai, and Berlin, among other places. The last EXPO in Germany took place in Hanover in 2000.
This year's venue, Osaka in Japan, is around 10,000 km away from Germany, depending on the route, and is not easy for everyone to reach. But the statements and ideas are circulating around the world and encouraging people to think in new ways. This applies above all to statements about coexistence, living, and building. Together with the "NEW Bauhaus" initiative, the Federal Foundation for Building Culture is drawing attention to the World Expo in Osaka and the German pavilion. The focus is on the question of what planning and building might look like in the future in view of climate adaptation and resource scarcity. The aim of the World Expo is to encourage everyone to think about how they want to live and how each and every one of us can contribute to better coexistence.
Under the motto "From Weimar to the World," NEW Bauhaus is presenting itself together with the Federal Foundation for Building Culture on the cultural stage of the German Pavilion. The focus is on current topics such as sustainable urban and regional development, intelligent material cycles, and the connection between aesthetics, functionality, and social benefits in a global context. The continuity of the World's Fair, which has been held approximately every one to five years for almost 175 years, conveys an idea of what it means to approach the design of the world in a future-oriented, peaceful, and collaborative manner.
Photo: © Louis Haghe (1806–1885), public domain, source: Wikimedia
