Yokohama’s latest transportation hub is a sizeable construction,
containing extensive areas for handling national and international passengers,
as well as shops, restaurants and multiple traffic facilities.
Although it has 48,000 m² (516,668 sq ft) of programmed space,
the Yokohama International Port Terminal maintains a relatively low profile as it projects out into the water.
Compared with the adjacent port freight facilities,
this structure appears less like an object on the water and more like an extension of the land behind it.
This continuity becomes more apparent inside the facility.
Two primary decks enable the various uses of the terminal, and ramps stitch together the upper and lower decks at several points.
In effect, the transition from inside to outside is a gradual one, further emphasized by uninterrupted wood flooring.
One can move from the landscaped upper zones, over and through the undulating planes of the project,
and into the receiving halls below and encounter very few physical barriers.
The parking level below the main areas is similarly connected.
Indeed, the architect envisioned a series of programme and circulation loops embedded within structural folds.
The result is a building characterized by multidirectional, fluid movement.
The surfaces of the project double as its structural strategy.
Primary techniques of folding and pleating the various steel grids provide integrity which can withstand the seismic activity common in Japan.
In addition, the structure enables surprisingly large spaces without the interruption of conventional columns, consistent with the continuous nature of the project’s spaces