Yokohama International Port Terminal

Ok so since I cant post anything on The Canadian War Museum right now I'll post about another piece of architecture I'm in love with. The Yokohama International Port Terminal in Yokohama, Japan built in 2002. By FOA- Foreign Office Architects. It was the winning design from a competition held in Japan in 1995. Its one of the largest ports in the world and was made to be more of a urban proposal more then a seaport terminal. The concept of ni-wa-miriato gives rise to the creation of a device that connects the system of a public spaces in Yokohama and the administration of the passenger flow.





The folded surfaces of the floor draw on the Japanese art of origami (something I have been interested in lately.) Folds are formed, which produce and differentiate the spaces internally. This way the traditional form of construction based on the use of structures with supported and supporting elements disappears, along with the columns, pillars, and the differentiated floors.





The formal external aspects of the construction is based on the roof of a ship with a iroko wooden platform, the primart material par excellence, whose dimensions are 230 ft. wide by 1400 ft. long. This structure simulates a futuristic landscape of artificail dunes, accentuated by a stainless steel handrail that follows the line traced by the surface area and is supported by rhomboid-shaped banisters.




Information right from "The Sourcebook of Contemporary Architecture" By Alex Sanchex Vidella.