Singapore Pavilion Honoured with iSMART Design Grand Award at Guangzhou Design Week 2025

DP Architects is pleased to share that the Singapore Pavilion, Expo 2025, Osaka has been accorded the Grand Award for the iSMART Design Award at Guangzhou Design Week (GZDW), held in December 2025. The award programme, led by GZDW, selects and recognises excellent spatial designs that demonstrate functional innovation, technological integration and aesthetic breakthroughs.

Commissioned by the Singapore Tourism Board, the Singapore Pavilion,Expo 2025, Osaka, was envisioned as a physical and symbolic embodiment of the nation’s ethos—small in size, big in dreams. Also named The Dream Sphere, the pavilion takes the form of a 17-metre-tall sphere inspired by Singapore’s affectionate nickname “Little Red Dot”. Designed in collaboration with Kingsmen Exhibits, KR+D, Presplay, Milla & Partner GmbH and Finding Pictures, the sphere conveys Singapore’s commitment to inclusion, collaboration and innovation—values that drive our progress as a nation while resonating with the Expo’s overarching theme, “Designing Future Society for Our Lives”.

Comprising 17,000 recycled aluminium Dream Discs, the façade weaves in the Seigaha wave motif to reflect Singapore and Japan’s shared island identity and values of resilience. With varying textures and sizes, the discs create a shimmering and textural surface that represents the collective aspirations of Singaporeans. Meticulously designed and assembled to balance structural integrity, visual richness and installation efficiency, each of the discs is securely mounted using a customised fixing system tailored to the curvature of the Dream Sphere. This system ensures stability against harsh weather conditions while allowing for precise placement to achieve the intended composition and lighting effects. Constructed using prefabricated steel and modular systems, the structure enables efficient assembly and disassembly, improving build efficiency, reducing installation time and ensuring precision despite the sphere’s complex geometry. The result is a unified and expressive skin—a tapestry of individual dreams brought together as a collective representation of dreams and aspirations, as well as an architectural expression of unity and possibility.

Accessibility is central to the pavilion’s design, and visitors of all abilities can navigate the space via ramps and lifts, while braille maps and signage support visually impaired guests. Additionally, sustainability underpins both the concept and construction. Following the 4Rs—Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Renew—the façade is made of 70% post-consumer content, reducing embodied carbon by approximately 70tCO₂, equivalent to the annual absorption of an estimated 2,500 trees. Extending this same principle, the structure, envelope and architectural components such as the Dream Discs, are also designed for disassembly and potential reuse or recycling after the Expo, further prolonging the life cycle of materials and reinforcing the pavilion’s circular design ethos.

Beyond an architectural icon, the Singapore Pavilion, Expo 2025, Osaka serves as a vessel of shared dreams and values, inviting global audiences to imagine, collaborate and shape a more resilient, inclusive and better-than-sustainable future.