YOKOHAMA INTERNATIONAL CRUISE TERMINAL

LOCATION: YOKAHAMA, JAPAN

BUILT IN: 1995
OPENED TO PUBLIC: 2002
BUILTUP AREA: 30100SQM
CLIMATE: HUMID SUBTROPICAL CLIMATE 
DESIGNED BY: FOREIGN OFFICE ARCHITECTS (FOA)

The design of the Yokohama International Port Terminal was part of a competition won in 1995 by
Foreign Office Architects. The Terminal was completed in 2002 in time for the World Cup, hosted by
Japan in that year. The ambition of the architects was to create a pier “where you never retrace your
steps.” The idea was that a visitor could travel the pier in any direction and would experience a
continuous forward momentum. The Yokohama Terminal was a highly ambitious project on a large
scale. It was also one of the first projects in a new generation of cyber-influenced architecture.

CONCEPT

The project staffs with what the architects have named as the "No Return Pier”, with the ambition to
structure the precinct of the pier as a fluid, uninterrupted and multi-directional space, rather than a
gateway to flows of fixed orientation. A series of programmatically specific interlcxking circulation
loops allow the architects to subvert the traditional linear and branching structure characteristic of
the building. Rather than developing the building as an object or figure on the pier, the project is
produced as an extension of the urban ground, constructed as a systematic transformation of the
lines of the circulation diagram into folded and bifurcated surface. The folds produce covered
surfaces where the different parts of the program can be hosted.

FEATURES OF THE TERMINAL

I. The Terminal can accommodate up to four LOA class vessels or two class vessels at the same
time. 2. The height of the building is designed to allow passengers to comfortably get on and off
vessels, but at the same time it hovers on the horizon so as not to interrupt the view of the Port. The
rooftop is gently curved if it was symbolizing rolling waves. 3. As the pier projects into the sea,
visitors coming from the land would usually have to walk to the end of the pier and return all the way
back again towards the land to leave the pier. Given this, the Terminal has diverse Baggage’s for
better navigability based on the concept of serving a citizens' park .