NÜSSLI made pavilions for five countries for the World Expo in Osaka
Swiss company NÜSSLI specialises in event structures. For the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, the company manufactured a whole five national pavilions, including a particularly spectacular one for Kuwait. Swiss Export Risk Insurance SERV provided contract bond insurance and counter guarantees to support the Kuwait pavilion project.
19.11.2025
World Expos are an opportunity for countries to showcase their best features. The showpiece for every country is its pavilion. Pavilions should not only be spectacular structures; they also need to be functional buildings.
For the 2025 Expo, a total of five countries sought the expertise of Swiss company NÜSSLI. This Thurgau-based company has been building exhibition pavilions since 2000 and, this year, was responsible not only for the Swiss pavilion but also those of Austria, Uzbekistan, Brazil and Kuwait.
Spectacular architecture with strict safety requirements
One particularly impressive pavilion was the Kuwaiti one, which NÜSSLI was commissioned to create as the total contractor. The structure had a dome on the inside that called to mind the starry sky over the desert, and a planted inner courtyard featuring elements of Islamic architecture. Most of all, though, the pavilion boasted a gigantic suspended roof in the shape of two wings.
Building this roof was a challenge, in light of Japan’s strict structural safety requirements due to the country’s frequent earthquakes. Nonetheless, the NÜSSLI team collaborated with expert partners in architecture and structural safety to meet this challenge in style. NÜSSLI was responsible not only for building the pavilion but also for running it during the Expo and sustainably dismantling it after the exhibition.
Supporting Swiss quality on the world stage
Perfect project management was of primary importance for an exhibition with as much public impact as Expo 2025: the pavilions had to be completed on time and within the given budget. Above all, they had to be of the required quality, in terms of both design and safety.
Projects of this scale need a corresponding level of investment. In order to be able to realise the five pavilions for Expo 2025, NÜSSLI needed to secure the requisite liquidity. This is where SERV came in. It provided two forms of contract bond insurance for the Kuwait pavilion project, specifically a performance bond and an advance payment guarantee, both combined with a counter guarantee.
“Innovative projects demand more than mere technical know-how. They need a foundation of trust and stability. SERV provides this exact foundation and helps us successfully create unique buildings and temporary infrastructures around the world,” according to Eric Bidie, CFO of the NÜSSLI Group.
“The fact that a Swiss company that builds pavilions for world exhibitions is in demand even from other countries bears witness to its quality and its internationally prized expertise,” continued Manuel Scherrer, who handled the project from the SERV side. “We are proud to have helped with the construction of something that has had such a great public impact.”
Lengthy preparation and rapid development
It took two entire years of planning and preparation to ensure the pavilions at the Expo would be ready to inspire visitors for half a year. NÜSSLI commissioned SERV in June 2023 to provide the insurance for this project. Here, the process did not take long: “SERV was able to provide an insurance commitment in principle within two weeks, and by August 2023 the contract was all wrapped up,” explained Manuel Scherrer.
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