ABSTRACT
To think of architecture as an accessory offers a way to reconcile seemingly incompatible conditions or elements which are nonetheless inherent in the design of a ferry terminal, such as leisure and efficiency. In this proposal, the ferry terminal is an accessory grafted, through design and programming, onto the site's extant tourist economy. Waiting and commuting, two seemingly disparate activities, blend programmatically and spatially into one seamless, perpetually-evolving event. The hybridization of the "useless" pleasure yachts and hyper-efficient ferryboats parallel the ambiguous relationship of ornament and structure that manifests in the surface membrane model. The membrane is an operative system made of a series of basic structural units that can be incrementally calibrated to adapt to local changes. The ferry terminal seeks to problematize and synthesize the programmatic relationships of leisure and efficiency by way of accessorizing itself to and exploiting the site's extant systems of control and entrapment.
