facts and fiction, a creative agency specialising in experiential spaces, presents a new film, FULL CIRCLE – Creating the German Pavilion, released a year after the space opened on 13 April 2025.
This demonstrates how the intricate idea of a circular economy was transformed into spatial experiences within the German Pavilion at Expo 2025 in Osaka.
Commissioned by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy and organised by Koelnmesse GmbH, the project was conceived and designed by facts and fiction in collaboration with LAVA Architects, with construction carried out by GL events.
It has already garnered multiple international awards, including an iF Communication Design Award and a Sustainability Award from the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE).
The project was created as a unified narrative and experience, combining architecture, exhibition design, and storytelling. This method crafted a seamless visitor journey where abstract concepts like circularity are conveyed not just through information but also via spatial arrangements, media, and interactions.
An insider perspective
The film FULL CIRCLE offers a behind-the-scenes look at this development, reflecting the creative team's perspective behind the pavilion.
Through interviews with those involved, it traces how initial ideas evolved into a complex, interdisciplinary project. It reveals the creative decisions, iterative processes and the challenges of aligning content, scenography and architecture within the framework of a major international World Expo.
What emerges is a detailed picture of the realities behind large-scale exhibition projects: competing requirements, ongoing negotiation across disciplines, and the need to translate abstract concepts into tangible experiences.
The film emphasises how the development of narrative thinking, spatial design, and visitor experience occurred simultaneously, with their interaction ultimately shaping the pavilion.
At the same time, the project reflects a broader shift in the exhibition sector.
Increasingly, projects like the German Pavilion are now situated at the crossroads of communication, design, and sustainability. In this space, storytelling plays a crucial role in making intricate topics understandable and captivating for a worldwide audience.
By focusing on the people, processes, and decisions involved in the pavilion, FULL CIRCLE goes beyond simple documentation. It provides insights into how modern exhibition experiences are conceptualised today and highlights the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in turning ambitious ideas into reality.
The firm also recently shared how it reimagined visitor engagement at the Expo with the Circulars, a characterful mediation tool that created meaningful connections and measurable impact.
At the entrance to the German Pavilion, each visitor was given their own Circular, which explained the content, posed questions, and sometimes initiated conversations in straightforward, accessible language.
Charlotte Coates is blooloop's editor. She is from Brighton, UK and previously worked as a librarian. She has a strong interest in arts, culture and information and graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in English Literature. Charlotte can usually be found either with her head in a book or planning her next travel adventure.
