Eastern eye.

Poised on the western tip of Kyushu, Nagasaki is the oldest sea port in Japan. It has always had a strong economic and cultural significance, because historically it was the only port open to sea traffic from foreign countries. During Japan's era of self-imposed isolation from 1634 to 1845, the only place foreigners could visit was a strip of land in Nagasaki Bay. Today, Nagasaki prefecture is engaged in a major urban redevelopment plan (under the appropriately futuristic sounding rubric of 'Nagasaki Urban Renaissance 2001'), overseen by local architect Hideto Horiike.

A key component of this redevelopment is a new ferry terminal in Nagasaki port, designed by Shin Takamatsu. The site is on a tract of reclaimed land, surrounded by sea and mountains. The exposed nature of the location makes the building a focal point in the landscape. As with the Mihonoseki Terminal (p44), Takamatsu exploits bold, interlocking geometrical forms and contrasting textures to create a sensuously sculptural composition. A compressed, cigar-like volume clad in sleek, anodised aluminium panels is crowned at one end by a sharply truncated cylinder. The fairfaced concrete cylinder houses a circular entrance hall which acts as a spatial and organisational pivot in the L-shaped plan. The long leg of the L forms the dominant quayside elevation, the shorter leg contains plant at lower level and offices above. Delicate striations of light filter through the partially glazed sloping roof of the cylinder. The roof is supported by a surprisingly slender space frame, which casts herring bone shadows on the cylinder's curved walls, magically animating the double-height space.

Despite the building's apparent external complexity, internal planning and circulation are simple and logical. From the forum-like entrance hall, which also contains a small cafe, passengers proceed into the quayside waiting area, lined on one side by cellular ticket outlets, On the upper floor is another waiting-cure-observation deck, with two small VIP suites and offices. These upper level functions are contained in the horizontal cylinder, its ends glazed to expose and express the activities inside,

Like Will Alsop's Hamburg ferry terminal (AR September 1993), Takamatsu's makes an explicit visual connection between the point of departure and the ships and water beyond. This serves to humanise and even romanticise the often dreary business of ferry travel As with bus travel, going by boat is often considered a second-rate alternative. (Takamatsu's fondness for squashed Swiss rolls on legs also echoes Alsop's unorthodox and slightly subversive form making.) Here, however, the quality of crisp refinement of the detailing and finishes is more space age than tramp steamer. The horizontal volume is chiselled and shaped with a glacial precision that belies the building's quotidian function and context, The concrete is flawless and the joints between the anodised aluminium panels wafer thin. Cadmium yellow (on the fire exits and on a bridge in the entrance hall) provides the only jolting shock of colour.

Although perhaps less hectically expressive than the Mihonoseki project, this tautly crafted building makes an enlivening contribution to the Nagasaki quayside. Seen from a distance on land or sea, the truncated cylinder registers as a sculptural presence amid the jumbled port cityscape, like a great watchful eye on the very edge of the Japanese archipelago.