Before they split up, the husband-and-wife team of Alejandro Zaera-Polo and Farshid Moussavi were among the most successful international architects as a result of their joint practice, Foreign Office Architects. Notably, Zaera-Polo and Moussavi had both worked for Rem Koolhaas in the early-1990s and sought to expand upon his ideas by adding in two new impetuses:

 ·      a use of biological metaphors such asphylogenesis to discuss the evolutionary relationship between the architectural projects they were designing;

·      a fascination with what was referred to at the time as the ‘space of flows’, based on their interpretation of writings by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze

While Foreign Office’s approach ultimately failed to thrive, it at least produced one memorable scheme along the way – that being their competition-winning scheme for the main ferry terminal in Yokohama, along the bay coastline from Tokyo. Stretching for an impressive 170 metres in length, this new pier was conceived by Zaera-Polo and Moussavi as a fluid, uninterrupted and multi-directional space that could allow people and their vehicles to move back and forward freely depending on where their destinations might be taking them. The imagery of the design feels very much like that of an ocean liner, and like those large ships, there is a reliance on combining just a few tough and practical materials for the construction. As a major piece of maritime engineering as well, the project also relied on the ingenuity of a Japanese engineering firm, Structural Design Group, headed by Kunio Watanabe.

The project broadly splits into three levels: a lower-level car deck, a middle floor which contains the ticket office, restaurant, office and other facilities, and an open-top deck level which has a stepped and fragmented topography including some grassy park areas. There are few conventional staircases within the building and instead people have to use ramps and other extended folded surfaces to take them up and down between the layers. This feeling of fluidity is enhanced by that use of only a few materials throughout, such as the timber decking that covers the upper level on which passengers can sit and relax while awaiting their ferry.