FOLDED PLATE

CASE STUDY
Niyati Ahire
05-AR-17-01
23 | 08 | 2021
SEM IX
B.R.H.C.O.A.
 01
Yokohama
port
terminal
Japan

Architect Built in Location

FOA 2000-2002 Yokohama, Japan
 Introduction

▪ The International Passenger Terminal in Yokohama is the

largest marine terminal in Japan. The creator of this work
is to study English FOA, composed by Alejandro Zaera
Polo and Farshid Moussavi.

▪ In 1994, the architects won the tender for the terminal

almost unintentionally. Previously, the ideas of this young
marriage had seduced the directors of the Architectural
Association in London, where he gave lessons. The
authorities offered them to publish their most innovative
project and the couple decided to design the passenger
terminal to test their ideas and then publish the project. Situation

The terminal is located in the Japanese

▪ The work of Zaera Polo and Moussavi was imposed on
other 660 projects submitted, including those of large
architecture as Dominique Perrault and Richard Rogers.
Among the jury found people like Arata Isozaki and Toyo
Ito.
city of Yokohama, near the city park of
Yamashita. Is located at the boundary
between land and sea, on the edge of
the bay, eliminating the boundary
between them.

▪ To develop the project, the architects used three-

dimensional virtual models.
 History
1859 The port of Yokohama was opened

1923 Destruction of the harbor facilities

by the great Kanto Earthquake 1930 Completion of Yamashita park

The west pier at the beginning of the

Meiji era

1894 completion of the Yokohama Harbor

pier

Yamashita Park (opened in 1930)

Osanbashi pier as of 1909

 Context Analysis

JAPAN

The Floor Area of the Yokohama

International Port Terminal is
around 34,732 Sq.m. Locating 4
km away from the central of
Yokohama
 Concept

To break the conventional linear path in a transportation

building where usually a transportation building works as
an input-output device, with very clear orientation:
departures and arrivals.

To explore the possibility of a transportation infrastructure

that could operate less as a gate, as a limit, and more as a
field of movements with no structural orientation
 Concept – Potential circulation paths of different user groups

CITIZEN PATH DEPATURE PATH

ARRIVAL PATH
 Concept

To extend the fluid circulation into the context. The building is
designed to disappear from the skyline, to be consistent with
the idea of not making a gate on a semantic level. The
building has three levels and is designed to be flat, and
therefore it looks like an extension of landscape.
To spread the building mass as thin as possible they occupied the
maximum area possible within the site. This is also why the building has
a rectangular footprint. This extension connects with the context almost
seamlessly especially because the roof deck is a public open space.
Concept

The connection between the

circulation paths was always
set as a bifurcation, so that
rather than setting the
programs as a series of
adjacent spaces with more or
less determined limits, they
articulated the users in the
continuity of a branched
sequence along the
circulatory system. to further
enhance these circulation
loops, the form is made
symmetrical, some major
functions of the building is also
mirrored across.
 Structure

The wrapped surface

would be built as a
corrugated cardboard
sheet, using an undulated
surface between two
plates to provide sufficient
structural strength. Higher
strength zones would be
produced by folding that
surface at a larger scale –
the ramp system linking
the different levels of the
building. This would be a
building without stairs and
columns. The ramps
became associated to the
main longitudinal structural
lines, running in two parallel
lines along the pier, taking
advantage of the depth of
their bent to produce the
largest structural elements.
The pier-building is 70 meters wide and goes 430
meters into the sea. The total height is approximately 15
meters.
 Details

Glass with hidden frames

Corrugated glass &

entrance opening

FOA has purposed an extremely reductive palate of materials in the project, in order to
preserve in the detailing of the project was the prevalence of horizontal surfaces as
spatial enclosure, versus the vertical enclosure which was ideally non-existent.

This automatically split the materials into two: steel and wood for each face of the
horizontal surfaces, which were supposed to be very intensively crated in geometry and
texture, and glass and railings, which were part of the vertical surfaces and that should
tend to vanish. Corrugated glass
 Details

Flexible control of space Roof deck programs allocation

Through the
relocation of
the border
control
fencing, the
terminal can
generate
varying
positions for
the national
border.
Something as
‘fixed’ as a
National
Border
becomes
mobile.
Movable Roof deck open space & outdoor furniture
Japanese border
Program

▪ The upper level of the terminal is a wooden terrace

that serves to stroll and enjoy the scene consists of
maritime vessels moored with passengers climbing or
descending. The main activity of the building is below
the terrace, where operating rooms arrivals and
departures, the areas of meetings and waiting,
restaurants and shops. At a lower level parking and
hides the engine room.

▪ The level of the soil not only fulfills its role of supporting
surface, but that happens to shape space. In this way,
several times the floor or wall becomes rises to form
inclines and stairs linking the interior and exterior. A
total of 10 ramps connecting the three levels.

▪ For the public entering the terminal is a rare

experience: it’s like being inside a huge prehistoric
creature. The roof of the main hall looks like a heavy
skeleton contrast, because of its low height, with the
vast width and length of the environment. The most
specific function in separate boxes from the ceiling, as
if they were the internal organs of a gigantic animal.
 Program

Roof deck
▪ The plaza can host festivals for every season, the
differentiated topographical conditions will provide a
variety of possibilities to host different events. The
organization of the available space for a festival depends
on the character of the festival.

▪ Sports – several sports can benefit from the geometry of

the roof plaza. A specially designed flat surface will allow
Second Floor the practice of different sports.

▪ Conventions – the terminal main hall can house different

activities other than departure and arrival of passengers.

First Floor
Views