The cork had no manufacturer
A specified material with no certification route in the country of construction is one of the most frequent causes of a late interior change. Here is how one was resolved.
The Portugal Pavilion drawings showed a cork curtain, central to the interior and not something to be substituted away.
When procurement went looking for it, there was nothing to find. No manufacturer made it. There was no catalogue entry, no lead time, and no fire certificate. That last one mattered.
In Japan an interior lining without certification cannot be installed. Not discouraged. Cannot. And the pavilion had an opening date shared with six other national pavilions, with no extension available to anyone.
What we did instead
The useful distinction turned out to be between a supplier and a manufacturer with material development capability. A supplier sells what already exists. The second kind can take a raw material and make something out of it that can then be tested. We went to the second kind.
Raw cork went in. It was worked into a textile, treated with fire retardant, and taken through Japanese fire testing.
Three months from raw material to installed surface. Six weeks of that was the testing.
Why the timing matters
The three months were recoverable because the question was asked during procurement rather than on site. The later it is asked, the less room there is to answer it.
What we ask now, of any material we have not installed in Japan before, is who makes it and whether it holds a certificate. Two questions, at specification stage rather than at procurement. It is the cheapest hour on the whole programme.