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**A Collaborative Platform Bridging to the Future**
This concluding event serves as a bridge to the future, reflecting on the pathways to sustainability highlighted at the Expo. Centered around the theme "Forest of Tranquility," we will explore new possibilities. Led by Thematic Project Producer Hiroaki Miyata, the program focuses on "connecting and living together" under the Better Co-Being concept, striving toward the realization of a future society. Join various experts in exploring the potential of co-creation.


*This programme was scheduled to open 14:30, start 15:00, and end 16:00, but has been changed to open 13:30, start 14:00, and end 16:00. Those with reservations may enter the Theme Weeks Studio from 13:30.
While you may still enter after 14:30 as originally planned to enjoy only the main session, the programme has been enhanced. We therefore encourage you to arrive at the 13:30 opening time to enjoy the performance commencing at 14:00.

【Reflection】
Wednesday, October 8, 2025, ahead of the Expo's closing, speakers included Hiroaki Miyata, Sou Fujimoto, Osaka Mayor Hideyuki Yokoyama, landscape design director Hiroki Kutsuna (responsible for the overall Expo landscape and the planting of the Forest of Tranquility), and SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa), who designed the “Better Co-Being” architecture resonating with the forest, took the stage. They discussed the values and significance of the initiatives built through the Osaka-Kansai Expo, and activities to connect them to the future, in the program “Resonance and Forest - From the Piercing Tower (1970) to the Open Sky (2025)” held at the Theme Week Studio within the venue.
Located at the venue's center, the “Forest of Silence” was created as a symbol of the Expo theme “Designing Future Society for All Life” and has drawn attention as a place where visitors can resonate with nature. The “Yumeshima Phase 2 Area Master Plan Ver. 2.0 (Draft)” announced by Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City in June 2025 outlined a policy to preserve the Forest of Silence's plantings even after the Expo concludes.
This event explored the ideas and co-creation processes born through the Expo, and how to connect them to the future. Discussions centered on the nature of “resonance” in future society and prospects for shaping the post-event legacy.

Part 1: Expo 2025 and National Area Plans
Part 1 featured Hiroaki Miyata, Theme Project Producer for the Osaka-Kansai Expo; Mario Vattani, Italian Government Representative for the Osaka-Kansai Expo; and Mohamed Al-Dahlaoui, Media Director for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Pavilion. They discussed Expo 2025 and the area plans of participating nations.

Part 2: Osaka's Potential Post-Expo
Part 2 featured Hiroaki Miyata (from Part 1), venue design producer Sou Fujimoto, Osaka Mayor Hideyuki Yokoyama, and landscape design director Yuki Kutsuna (responsible for planting in the Forest of Silence), who discussed Osaka's potential after the Expo.

Part 3: The City Beyond Expo 2025
In Part 3, alongside Mr. Hiroaki Miyata and Mr. Sou Fujimoto from Part 2, SANAA (Ms. Kazuyo Sejima and Mr. Ryue Nishizawa), who designed the “Better Co-Being” architecture resonating with the forest, took the stage to discuss the city beyond Expo 2025.


【Post EXPO Initiatives】
Each section suggested a vision for the period following the Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, Japan.

Part 1: The 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo and National Area Plans
Mr. Vattani stated that the design of the “Grand Roof Ring” conveyed a sense of multilateral cooperation, adding, “Cities change through expos.” Reflecting on the Italian Pavilion, he noted its success in conveying essence through authentic displays of art and food culture. Mr. Al-Dahlawi of Saudi Arabia communicated a vision of sustainable cities alongside new Saudi attractions through immersive wind-feeling visuals and cuisine blending Japanese elements. Mr. Miyata emphasized, “Diversity is conveyed only through the five senses.”

Part 2: Osaka's Potential Post-Expo
Mr. Miyata emphasized that “people are the greatest legacy,” stressing the value of spaces that can only be conveyed through real experiences. Mayor Yokoyama suggested that a city's richness lies not in efficiency but in ‘leisure’ and “inefficiency,” and that Osaka's distinctive open culture and sensibility are essential for future urban development.
Mr. Miyata explained that the Expo space was designed as a dual structure of “festivity” and ‘introspection’ through the “Grand Roof Ring” and the “Forest of Silence,” consciously creating landscapes where visitors could find their own place. Mr. Kutsuna, who expressed the coexistence of plantings and people at the Expo site, advocated for the necessity of coexisting spaces for nature and people within the city.
Mayor Yokoyama stated, “We aim to apply this experience to future city development and further refine our appeal as an international city.”

Part 3: The City After the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo
Using the roofless and wall-less “Better Co-Being” Pavilion as an example, Ms. Sejima explained that considering how we relate to various environments provides an opportunity to reexamine the relationship between people and nature. She stressed the importance of people engaging with this awareness in future urban development.
Nishizawa remarked that cities are part of human life, and the sense of perceiving them as an extension of ourselves will become increasingly vital in the coming era. He stated that “architecture is the very environment for living,” asserting that what the future of cities needs is not “rigidly organized hardness” but “flexible coexistence.”
Mr. Fujimoto described how the “Ring,” though seemingly rigid and massive at first glance, reveals softness as people approach and ascend it, suggesting architecture can pose questions and present new relationships between cities and people.
Cities have maintained order by “building walls,” but now “dissolving boundaries” will be the key to nurturing new economies and cultures. Such proposals for a future beginning with architecture were presented.

Asahi Group Japan, Ltd.