Yokohama Ferry Terminal
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The use of grass was the client’s, rather than architect’s, choice
Satoru Mishima and Ramon Prat Download Original
Multifunctional international ferry port with civic hall and urban park
The topographical form determined the building’s structure. Twin structural ramps span along the long axis acting as conveyors of people, goods and services, while offering support to secondary folded steel plates which create and cover the two civic plazas.
The terminal height was set at five metres above the concrete apron, which then determined the length of the ramps to the building’s entrance. The length of the ramps to ground then determined the size of the terminal, the height of the roof and, therefore, the form of the park.
For 90 days of the year, it moors boats large and small on local and international journeys. It also functions as a civic hall.
Though the folded plates appear like paper-folding, their construction is of framing and metal sheet, which acts in both tension and compression.
Data
- Begun: Mar 2000
- Completed: Nov 2002
- Floor area: 438,243m2
- Sectors: Civic, Transport
- Total cost: £129M
- Tender date: Feb 2000
- Address: 日本, 〒231-0002 神奈川県横浜市中区海岸通1丁目, Yokohama, Japan
Professional Team 
- Architect: Foreign Office Architects
- Project architects: Alejandro Zaera Polo, Farshid Moussavi, Izumi Kobayashi, Keisuke Tamura, Kenichi Matsuzawa, Kensuke Kishikawa, Lluis Vu Rebes, Shokan Endo, Tomofumi Nagayama, Xavier Ortiz, Yasuhisa Kikuchi
- Client: The City of Yokohama Port & Harbour Bureau Construction Department, Osanbashi Passenger Vessel Terminal Maintenance Subdivision
- Structural engineer: Structure Design Group
- Services engineer: PT Morimura & Associates
- Disaster Prevention Consultant: Akeno Fire Research Institute
- Main contractor: Shimizu Corporation
- Acoustic consultant: Nagata Acoustics
- Traffic consultant: Urban Traffic Engineering
- Lighting consultant: Kado Lighting Design Laboratory
- Quantity surveyor: Fataba Quantity Surveyors Co
- Services engineer: PT Morimura & Associates
Suppliers
- Steel supplier: NKK Corporation
- Glazing: Glass Asahi