Kingdom of Saudi Arabia - World Expo 2025

About the Project:

In partnership with Foster + Partners, 59 Studio designed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s pavilion at Expo 2025, weaving architecture, story and placemaking together to connect audiences with the undiscovered wonders of Saudi Arabia.

Focusing on the rich, deep-rooted cultural history of KSA, 59 Studio designed the central courtyard and two cultural studios that put Saudi artists and their practice at the heart of the spaces. These bespoke, highly-equipped cultural studios will then become active spaces inhabited by artists in a series of residencies, allowing people to see the creativity of these artists and musicians first-hand. Over the 6-month Expo, work from these artists will be developed and woven into an evolving nightly show that will take place in the courtyard every evening.

Under a separate brief, 59 Studio and partners Done + Dusted collaborated to create a dynamic platform for 44 talented artists from across the Kingdom. These artists were invited to work within our specially designed Visual Arts and Music studios inside the pavilion, showcasing the very best of Saudi Arabia’s vibrant cultural scene. Collaborating closely with the artists, the 59 team produced Visions of Saudi Arabia, a captivating ten-minute projection mapping, light and audio show. Presented nightly in the heart of the Pavilion’s Saudi Courtyard, the show evolves each week, introducing fresh and exciting works, ensuring that every visitor’s experience is unique.

As Project Lead and Design Director, I was responsible for bringing the creative vision of each artist to life, not only within each Cultural Studio but also in how each artist’s work was presented in our nightly projection-mapped show Visions of Saudi Arabia. This was a significant undertaking, spanning two years of communication with various external partners, including the different Cultural Ministries of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, our production partner D+D, and each artist. The challenge was to understand how to best represent each artist and their work, how the cultural programming evolved over a six-month period, and to explain the concept of the pavilion—which was unique in many ways—to a predominantly Japanese audience that moved freely through the space.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia pavilion has since won multiple Gold awards for its design and experience at the World Expo in Osaka.

Explore in more detail at 59.Studio 

Project Director
Lysander Ashton
Project Lead
Jason Devine
Lead Producer
Peter Holland
Expo Art Director
Uzo Uzoigwe
Assistant Expo Art Director
Zsuzsanna Koszti
Exhibition Design
Dayoung Shin

Sound Design
Coda to Coda
Lighting Designer
Paul Gould
Video Designer
Benjamin Khan
Nas Weng
Assistant Video Designer
Caroline James
Animators
Leandro Barros
Tom Munday
Ed Stockton
Editor
Ed Saunders

Programmers
Liam Daly
Iain Syme
Mike Higgs
Production Management
Richard Williamson
KSA Consultant
Wonderjunkie
Curatorial Consultant
Kate Bailey
Translation
Tomoko Kanda