Even though it is the architect's first major project, it has almost singlehandedly steered the high-pressure scheme through major underwater civil engineering work and a construction programme involving three contractors.
Now the 430 × 70 m reclaimed site is rapidly evolving: prefabricated steel girders are brought in daily from factories in Korea and Japan and slotted together to form the steel ramps that sit on the pier's 400 50 m high piles.
The work has been segregated into three divisions, each one a joint venture with a different Japanese contractor. To help the contractors understand the building as a whole, each has also been given responsibility for a single aspect required throughout. One firm, for example, will be in charge of all the glazing.
The final effect will be, as Foreign Office Architects puts it, "lasagne-like", with the roof of the terminal forming a landscape of rolling steel. This will ripple away from the city as a new public space, while below, in the body of the building, passengers will move though circulation areas that rise and fall within the bends of the structural ramps.
Credits
client Port and Harbour Authority and the City of Yokohama architect Foreign Office Architects structural engineer Structural Design Group, Japan building services engineer PT Morimura & Associates, Japan main contractors Shimizu Corporation (division 1), Kajima Corporation (division 2), Toda Corporation division 3)
