HANAMEGURI: 21 season-long and 227 nine-day exhibitors behind a kumiko facade reused from Dubai and Osaka

• TSP Taiyo Co. and Yuko Nagayama & Associates, the joint venture that designs and builds the indoor exhibition facility, released renderings and site photographs on 15 September 2026, the day the GREEN×EXPO Association announced the building’s nickname, HANAMEGURI.
• What is inside: under the theme “new emotions on every visit”, the hall hosts flower and green exhibitors from Japan and abroad, and official participants (foreign governments and international organisations) for all 192 days. Flower and green exhibitors number 21 for the whole season and 227 on nine-day rotations. About 20 official participants exhibit for the full season. It is the largest visitor building commissioned by the Association.
• The kumiko facade: the building reuses the lattice facade of the Japan Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai and of the Women’s Pavilion in collaboration with Cartier at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai. The lattice, designed by Yuko Nagayama & Associates for Dubai, combines the Japanese hemp-leaf pattern with the arabesque. In Yokohama it is combined with TSP Taiyo’s rental components and mirror-film walls that reflect the lattice for depth.
• Construction: work on the facade began on site at the end of July 2026; the facade is due to be complete at the end of September and the whole building by the end of the year. Membrane material from Taiyo Kogyo, a group company, is also used.
• Yuko Nagayama’s comment: she had planned large-scale reuse since proposing the Dubai pavilion in 2018, out of doubt about Expo pavilions built new every five years and then discarded. She and TSP Taiyo won the open proposal for the facility at the end of 2024, designed the Yokohama building while Expo 2025 was running, and began careful dismantling the day after it closed. She calls buildings that are designed to move on “moving architecture”, and notes that Panasonic’s Nomo no Kuni pavilion from Expo 2025 will also be reused, as Toho Leo’s exhibit in Yokohama.
• Project team: client, the Association; design, Yuko Nagayama & Associates; construction and supervision, TSP Taiyo; facade structure, Ove Arup & Partners Japan; planting, Ogino Landscape Design.
• Not stated: the floor area, the rotation calendar for short-term exhibitors, and the layout inside.

Our take

Do the division. Of the flower and green exhibitors, 227 rotate every nine days. Over 192 days that is about 21 changeovers, with roughly ten exhibitors showing at a time. The 21 season-long exhibitors and the 20 or so official participants stay put, so about half the hall changes every nine days. The Association explains the nickname as a new scene on every visit; these are the numbers behind it.

Our list of season-long indoor exhibitors, compiled from the official list as of 1 July 2026, had 19. Today’s figure is 21, two more. The release does not say which, so we will check the next official list.

Then the building itself. The lattice is on its third Expo, after Dubai and Osaka. Building reuse from Expo 2025, which we have followed in what Expo 2025 brings to Yokohama, now has two examples in the venue: Nomo no Kuni and this lattice. Anyone who saw the white grid of the Women’s Pavilion in Osaka will see the same components again in Yokohama. With the facade finished by the end of September, we expect it to be one of the first buildings visible from outside the site.

Tips for visitors

• HANAMEGURI changes every nine days. If you care who is showing on your day, wait for the rotation calendar before booking your timed entry.
• If you plan two or more visits, this hall will be different each time. See how to think about the season pass.
• If you went to Expo 2025, look for two buildings you will recognise: this lattice and Nomo no Kuni. The full list of what moves from Osaka to Yokohama is in what Expo 2025 brings to Yokohama.
• The meaning of the name, and the two other nicknames announced the same day, are in our report on the three nicknames.