Kyoto Station’s vast glass-and-steel atrium places a contemporary public interior at the threshold of an ancient capital. Opened in 1997, the station building draws on Kyoto’s historic grid while embracing a large, modern civic scale.
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The station’s atrium feels like an indoor valley, with long stairways rising along its sides and a broad roof of glass and metal above. Architect Hiroshi Hara designed the current station building, opened in 1997, with a concept that treated Kyoto as a gateway to history.
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UpgradeQuick facts
- The current Kyoto Station building opened in 1997.
- Hiroshi Hara designed the building.
- Its plan references the grid of ancient Heiankyo.
More places in Kyoto
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Daisen-in
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