The UK’s Expo 2025 pavilion has opened, showcasing British creativity through digital projections, interactive games, and character animated storytelling. The World Expo takes place every five years and is a global showcase of different nations’ culture and achievements. This year’s event is being held in Osaka, Japan, under the theme of “designing future society for our lives.” The UK Pavilion, designed by Immersive International and commissioned by the UK Government’s Department for Business and Trade, opened on 13 April and runs until October. Visitors are taken through a series of rooms and corridors where projection mapping, responsive lighting, layered audio, and interactive games immerse them in the story of Kenji, a Japanese father, his daughter Mei, and the pavilion’s mascot PIX. John Munro, the CEO and Chief Creative Officer of Immersive International, described the exhibition as the “UK’s first story-led pavilion.” The pavilion route takes 23 minutes to walk through “It’s really funny being in Expo and seeing everybody else’s pavilions, because that’s when you realise, it wasn’t just unique for the UK to design a story like this pavilion,” said Munro. “I think it’s quite unique for the entire Expo to have so much of a character animation based story.” After winning the initial competition to design the concept in April 2023, Munro and his team spent six months bringing their designs to life. They worked with building contractor ESG and WOO architects, whose modular system prioritised sustainability. “Part of our original concept was to create the most sustainable, remountable and redeployable pavilion,” said Munro, who explained that sustainability is one of the Expo’s central themes this year. The UK Pavilion is designed by Immersive International and commissioned by the Department for Business and Trade Accessibility was similarly prioritised in the pavilion’s design. “We were taking note of the way that people can navigate around the space – disabled people, people who are hard of hearing, or sightless people – in terms of braille everywhere, braille books and audio descriptions,” Munro explains. Organisers estimate that 28 million people will visit this year’s event, 80% of whom will be Japanese, and 20% from overseas. Munro worked closely with creative director Jordan Foster and associate creative director Aoi Matsushima to bring the story-led experience to life in both Japanese and English. “The whole time we’re mirroring the UK and Japan,” he said. “So we’re not just singing the praises of the UK – we’re hoping that everybody’s feeling proud of both cultures and seeing how we’ve worked together for so many years. The goal was to create an experience that could work for everyone The challenge was to create an experience that worked for any nationality, while retaining its personality. “We wanted to make sure the story could work for everyone, yet not be so bland that it’s just basic. I think the characters, the spatial design, the way that you move through the pavilion, the way that some parts are interactive, some parts are huge and overwhelming, some parts are incredibly detailed – it means you’re constantly firing on all cylinders in your mind,” he says. One of the ways in which Immersive International hoped to engage visitors was through the pavilion’s mascot PIX – a playful character brought to life by Mei, the daughter in the story. “We realised the character that sits in between the father and the daughter needs to be able to draw out the best emotions from both, but also take the audience through this fourth dimension,” said Munro. As a result, the pixel character was born, guiding visitors through the story. “PIX basically transforms into multiple different ideas,” Munro explained. “There’s an interactive section in one of the rooms, where people are playing a quiz. Every time PIX talks about something inspirational, like the spark of an idea, he also changes.” Although the pavilion route takes 23 minutes, Munro believes it feels much shorter due to the amount of content and interactivity there is for visitors to absorb. He also acknowledges that, due to the number of exhibitions at Expo, visitors may not be their most energetic when they come to the UK pavilion. “We know that people are tired and busy, and they’ve seen a lot of other pavilions,” he said. “We wanted to make sure that through the physical action, the interactive games, and by hanging out with such a personable character, the notion of constant inspiration would hit.” Creativity and imagination were key to the UK Pavilion, characterised through Kenji, Mei and PIX, and the interactive elements of the pavilion. Everything about the space was designed to engage with visitors and leave them energised. “No matter how old they were, no matter what their position or career is, we wanted them to know that inspiration is just there at every single moment, and at any moment, you could come up with an idea that could go on and change the world,” said Munro. “I think we’ve all had moments in our life – as a kid or as an adult – when someone said something and it just clicked,” he added. “And you’ve thought you could go ahead and do anything, and maybe even gone ahead and done something incredible. “We want every single person that goes through this pavilion to know that they have that ability. That’s what success looks like – people leaving and knowing that.” The UK’s Expo 2025 showcases British creativity through digital projections, interactive games, and character animated storytelling Visitors are immersed in the story of Kenji, a Japanese father, his daughter Mei, and the pavilion’s mascot PIX. Creativity and imagination were key to the UK Pavilion