Yokohama International Port Terminal

Yokohama International Port Terminal
Partial text from http://designmuseum.org/design/foreign-office-architects, processed through Wordookie library in Processing
Site
Osanbashi Pier, late 19th century, expanded with landfill
One of the first ports open to the West
Japan’s second largest city
Docking for international cruise ships 25x per year
1400 x 200 ft (approx)
Key Figures
Architects: Foreign Office Architects (FOA)
Associate: GKK
Engineers: Structure Design Group, PT Morimura
General contractors: Shimizu; Kajima; Toda
Open design competition: 1995
Project completion: 2002
Cost: $195million
Features
Retractable baggage consoles and immigration checkpoints
Interior and exterior plazas
Palette: Fireproof structural steel, glass, Ipe decking
Column-free design
Cantilevered up to 56 feet
Mixed structure: pleated roof and girder system
Computational Geometry / Questions
What do doubly-curved geometry represent?
“The challenge… is to try to understand these tools in a more sophisticated way
than as simply a new set of shapes…. Issues of force, motion and time… can now be
experimented with… [using] tools of gradients, flexible envelopes, temporal flows and forces”
Purported UV coordinate system for surface
Roof design iterations in conjunction with force/structural analysis
Move from spline to “complex” curves
Alternate competition entry
Lynn, McInturf, Holden, et. al
Bibliography
Canizares, “Great New Buildings of the World”. NY: Harper. 2005
Lynn, “Animate Form”. NY: Princeton Arch. Press. 1999
Moore, Betsky et al, “Vertigo”. Corte Madera: Ginkgo Press. 1999
Parkyn, “Super Structures”. NY: Merrell. 2004
Pollock, “Foreign Office Architects blurs the line...” Architectural Record, 190, Part 11. 2002
http://www.architectureweek.com/2002/0619/design_1-1.html
http://designmuseum.org/design/foreign-office-architects
http://www25.big.or.jp/~k_wat/yokohama/estruc.htm
Arch 486 Case Study / Spring 2010 / Brian Monwai