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Yungay Wood Shines in the Chilean Pavilion at Expo Osaka 2025

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“Makün: The Mantle of Chile” is the title of the wooden installation that, as of this Tuesday, adorns the Chilean pavilion at Japan’s Expo Osaka. This piece of wood was extracted from the forests of the Yungay commune. Spanning 240 m2, it consists of a textile crafted by 200 Mapuche weavers, while the support structure was made by the company Arauco.

The design was led by Constructo, an architecture firm from Santiago, with the aim of symbolizing Chile’s cultural richness and its commitment to sustainability—much like the iceberg showcased at the 1992 Expo Sevilla years ago.

Charles Kimber, Corporate Manager of People and Sustainability at Arauco, stated in a press release: “We feel deeply honored and proud to represent Chile at a global event like Expo Osaka. This is a unique opportunity to showcase our country’s potential, its cultural wealth, and the commitment of companies like Arauco to sustainability, innovation, and development with local identity.”

Arauco also confirmed that the wood used in the structure comes from certified forests, where trees were planted, cared for over 24 years, and replanted after harvest. This long-term vision has enabled the use of renewable wood in national and global initiatives, such as the one now displayed in Japan. For this project, the piece was made of cross-laminated timber sourced from the Hilam plant in Yungay, Ñuble Region.

Along the same lines, Fernando Marcone, Arauco’s Deputy Manager of Wood Construction, noted: “Participating in Expo Osaka was the result of intense collaborative work between the project’s design team and Arauco’s multidisciplinary team, who transformed the pavilion’s design into something manufacturable, transportable in containers, and logically well-planned for assembly on the other side of the world. Without a doubt, the effort was worth it: Chile and its vast forestry potential are now represented in Japan—a country with a millennia-old tradition of wood construction—at a pivotal moment when this material is being widely adopted to build sustainable cities.”

The expo will remain open for months, until October 13, marking the completion of Chile’s participation in this international event.

Source:La Discusión