Namba Parks Shopping Mall in Osaka
“Next stop Namba Station!” the message rings out from the loudspeaker in the train from Osaka Airport to the city centre. The roughly nine-acre site of the former Nangai Stadium is now occupied by one of the most impressive shopping centres in the country, rising to a height of 42 metres and with a floor area of 297,000 m². Good links to the railway and the road systems mean that on a single weekend up to 250,000 people may visit the retail amenities in this green, park-like environment. The shopping facilities hardly differ from those of typical underground shopping malls of international standard. The layout of the development in a series of stepped terraces, however, mediates between the traditional two-storey buildings in the area and a new high-rise block on an adjoining site.
