At Namba Parks, the conceptual premise is that of a canyon coursing through an urban park. A
terraced complex of retail spaces envelopes an open space in the center, starting out as an
oval vertical space, open to the sky and flowing out to the entrance. Near the entrance, up a
ramp from street level, replicas of a home plate and pitcher’s rubber are set in the paving to
mark the exact location of the demolished Osaka Stadium. During excavations, deposits of
prehistoric seashells were discovered in the soil beneath Namba Parks, the location of which
was once Osaka Bay, now four kilometers (2.5 miles) to the west. The use of replica seashells
as a motif throughout Namba Parks lends further meaning to the theme of a canyon cutting
across the layers of time.