CZECH MUSH ROOM – PAVILION EXPO 2025

About the Project

Mushrooms as building materials, medicine, and visually fascinating organisms. The caps and spore-bearing surfaces of polypores as symbols of the Czech affinity for nature. Mycelium as an innovative material—inviting scientific exploration and technological progress, while also calling for a return to our roots.

A group of young graphic designers, architects, and creatives around the studio Plus One Architects designed the Czech Mush Room pavilion for EXPO 2025—earning a special jury prize in the competition. Visitors walk beneath giant mushrooms, immersed in their textures and forms. In the ocean-facing restaurant, they enjoy mushroom delicacies they’ve never seen before. Later, they unwind in a calm garden to process the experience. And because they don’t want to forget such an intense journey, they leave with a forager’s knife as a souvenir. These are the kinds of moments the team at Plus One Architects embedded into their design. "Visitors become foragers. One by one, they discover the installations—filling their basket with knowledge, emotions, and experiences," explain the authors of the proposal.

Technical information

  • + Ósaka, Japan

  • + Architectural competition: 2023 JURY AWARD

  • + Area: 600 m²

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    Authors: Petra Ciencialová, Cyril Dunděra, Josefina Karlíková, Matěj Janský, Natálie Najbrtová, Kateřina Průchová, Matěj Vojtuš

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    Co-authors: Sofie Gjuričová, Konrád Karlík, Jakub Kuta, Tomáš Rachůnek, Jan K. Rolník

+ Visualisations

"More and more often, we seek peace and harmony in nature to escape the constant stimuli of everyday life. Unknowingly, we walk along vast and endless biological pathways — a complex communication network of eukaryotic organisms. Mycologists, designers, engineers, and scientists around the world are continuously discovering new capabilities of fruiting bodies and exciting applications of mycelium. We, too, worked with it in the Czech Pavilion,” says the team at Plus One Architects. “We’re exploring the fascinating relationship between nature, fungi, and humans.”  

The jury particularly appreciated the boldness of the concept. “It is a strong, courageous design that quickly became one of the most discussed proposals. The authors presented a complex and layered concept. If realized, it would undoubtedly attract major attention at the World Expo,” noted the evaluators, which included renowned figures such as architect Eva Jiřičná, Balázs Bognár, and Jan Kasl. And even though visitors to EXPO 2025 won’t get to walk through the Czech Mush Room Pavilion, the project has undoubtedly laid fertile ground for rethinking the potential of natural materials that quite literally surround us.  

+ AXO

+ Team

+ From the left: Matěj Vojtuš, Kateřina Průchová, Josefina Karlíková, Cyril Dunděra, Natálie Najbrtová, Petra Ciencialová, Matěj Janský + Photo: Viktorie Macánová