Ayabe Industrial Park Exchange Plaza (綾部工業団地・交流プラザ)

The Ayabe Industrial Park was developed by Kyoto Prefecture, on the basis of its 1981 basic concept survey and its third comprehensive development plan. The first section went on sale in 1989, the second in 1994. The exchange centre, completed in 1996, stands in the second section and brings together practical, exchange, cultural and recreational functions.

It was built as a place of training, exchange, culture and recreation for the companies established in the park and for local people. Tadao Ando designed it to supply what traditional industrial parks lack: a place where companies, and companies and residents, meet in the midst of nature, as the core of a new kind of industrial park looking towards the 21st century.

The association that runs the park, the Ayabe Industrial Park Promotion Centre, founded in March 1997 and turned into a general incorporated association in April 2012, has its offices in the building.

Ando took the surroundings into account: he buried the whole building in the slope while opening it wide towards the regulating pond, so that it becomes one with the nature around the pond. An entrance hall, a foyer, a multipurpose hall, a meeting room and offices make up the building; on the ground floor, the multipurpose hall measures 9 m by 12, with a stage of 9 m by 4.2, and the meeting room 4.5 m by 4.5.

The exterior is itself a circuit walking path, where one strolls enjoying the pond, the green of the mountains and the song of the birds. Along the promenade leading to the entrance lie a square and a pond where two sculptures seem to converse with the building. The city of Ayabe counts the building itself, like these two sculptures, among the works on its sculpture trail.

The multipurpose hall and the meeting room are hired for meetings, training courses, exhibitions and events, by residents of Ayabe as well as by people from other cities and prefectures. The multipurpose hall holds 100 people at most, about 60 with long tables; the meeting room, 10. A projector, a 100-inch motorised screen and microphones are available. The foyer, the lawn and the car park, which takes about 70 cars, can also be hired on request.

The building can be seen from outside; it features, with its two sculptures, on the city's sculpture trail. Its rooms are for hire: they are booked by telephone through the park's association, based in the building, which also gives availability. The centre is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; it is closed on Wednesdays, Sundays, public holidays and over the New Year period, but opens on a Sunday or a public holiday if this is arranged in advance with the association.

It is about 10 minutes by car from JR Ayabe Station; JR Fuchigaki Station is a 25-minute walk away.