THE IMPRESSIVE NETHERLANDS PAVILION – OSAKA EXPO 2025
Resonate designed a spatial sound journey that carries the emotional thread from start to finish. This is not background audio. It shapes the experience. Every layer is tied to movement, meaning and place. Visitors enter a space built from sound. Water textures crackle with tension. Orchestral swells rise. Vocal fragments speak with purpose.
Interactive orbs carry unique sonic voices, forming a quiet dialogue between people and space. As visitors move, the sound moves with them. In the dome theatre, music and spoken word land with scale and clarity. In the final room, generative sound builds live in response to each visitor.
Every sound was placed with intent. Nothing borrowed. Nothing generic. This is sonic design that reflects a shift from struggle to collaboration, from individual to shared. Sound that holds meaning and stays with you.
NETHERLANDS PAVILION IN OSAKA, JAPAN
Each orb in the Netherlands Pavilion carries a custom-designed sonic identity. Resonate shaped these voices from scratch using tonal textures, melodic fragments and spatial movement to create something that feels alive but not artificial. The sound is subtle, futuristic and built with intent. A quiet presence that stays with the visitor.
These voices respond to specific moments in the space. As the orb connects with installations, its voice shifts and blends into the wider sonic landscape. In the final pledge station, the orbs unlock harmonic layers and join a real-time generative mix. Each visitor adds to the sound. The design keeps it personal, quiet, and precise.
At the centre of the Netherlands Pavilion sits the Dome Theatre, an immersive space featuring New Dawn, a spatial music composition by Ebenhaezer Smal. Resonate mixed and sound designed the piece for a custom 12.1 speaker array, placing sound in full orbit above and around the audience. This is not film scoring. It is spatial music built for architecture, composed to be felt as much as heard.
ORBS INTERACTING IN REAL TIME WITH THE SHOW
THE STUNNING NEW DAWN THEATRE
The piece moves between electronic textures and classical gestures, unfolding slowly in layered waves. Voices speak in English and Japanese, delivering a poetic call for unity, collaboration and future thinking. The mix was sculpted to the shape of the room, with low-end anchoring the floor and harmonic detail floating through the dome. Every sound was placed with intent to support the narrative arc and create a moment of stillness, scale and clarity.
In the final room of the pavilion, Resonate created a custom generative audio system that responds to the presence of people and their orbs. As visitors place their orbs into the installation, the system triggers tonal layers, pulses and harmonic shifts. What begins as a sparse ambient field grows into a dense, evolving composition shaped entirely by those in the space. Each orb adds to the texture, forming a collective soundscape that is never the same twice.
The experience is both futuristic and visceral. Low-end vibrations move through the floor while high harmonic detail hovers in the air. The system listens, responds and adjusts in real time. There is no playback timeline, no start or end. It is a living score that reflects the moment of gathering. The sound carries weight but stays subtle. It builds quietly, suggesting alignment without forcing it. A shared resonance, created by many, held in one space.
PLEDGE STATION – INSPIRING A COLLECTIVE GOAL
The orb is more than a prop. It is a tactile avatar that carries each visitor’s presence through the pavilion. Resonate designed a custom workflow to link each orb to key audio moments across the space. As visitors move, the orb triggers sound, light and interaction points, unlocking layers of the story in real time.
These activations are not random cues. They are tightly woven into the sound design, shifting the emotional tone and guiding the pace of the journey. The orb becomes a personal anchor in a shared environment, allowing each guest to shape the experience while staying connected to the larger narrative.
The architecture of the Netherlands Pavilion is bold, minimal and intentional. It reflects a design culture grounded in clarity, sustainability and innovation. Resonate’s audio mirrors this approach. The sound is refined and purposeful, built to support the space without excess.
