The Yokohama International Ferry Terminal opened to festive acclaim last Sunday.
It was many years in the making. Competitive designs for it were submitted in 1994, "but the project was put on hold. We were given the go-ahead in January 1999, with very little time left for completion to meet the deadline of the World Cup," said architect Alejandro Zaera-Polo.
He and his wife, his architect partner Farshid Moussavi, have spent the time since the winning of their award coming and going on a monthly basis between London and Yokohama. They became parents of their baby daughter too. It has, Alejandro says, been frantic.