Naniwabashi Station (entrances)

Naniwabashi Station (なにわ橋駅) is one of the stations of the Keihan Nakanoshima Line, an entirely underground line that opened in October 2008. A few months before the opening, the line's owner-builder fixed the design of the entrances of all the stations, aiming for architecture worthy of "Osaka, city of water". The stations on Nakanoshima Avenue share one design; Naniwabashi, which stands in the park, was given a design of its own.

Nakanoshima Park holds historic buildings, among them the Osaka City Central Public Hall and the Nakanoshima Library, and a redevelopment plan was under way: greater artistic quality was sought for the entrances, and Tadao Ando was asked to design them.

Roles were shared: the basic design of the station went to Keihan and two design firms, the detailed design of the station to the firm Azusa Sekkei, and that of the entrances and other elements to Tadao Ando's office.

The three entrances share one form: an arc-shaped wall rises from the earth, then extends into a roof. They open onto the street that continues from Naniwabashi Bridge toward the Osaka City Central Public Hall, which faces them; the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, stands across the street. To the east, two entrances face each other on either side of the street, like a gate, on the axis leading to the Hall.

Inside, the light of a glass-block wall falls on the escalator. The station concourse below is spacious.

These are the entrances of a working station, served by the Keihan Nakanoshima Line (station KH51). The concourse on the first basement level houses Art Area B1, a cultural space run by Keihan Holdings that opened in 2008 with the line: events are held there, in a station conceived as a place of exchange.

The entrances can be seen and used like any station entrance, in Nakanoshima Park.

Art Area B1 is open from 11:00 to 18:00; it is closed on Sundays, Mondays, at the year end and in summer, and hours differ during some programmes.