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"…Traditional economic development efforts would not have worked if Ireland did not buttress them with a major lifestyle effort. Long a conservative nation, Ireland built upon its legacy of culture, art and music to become a center for bohemian energy and an eclectic milieu of scenes, lifestyles and people. Today the streets teem with a mixture of people from button-downed businessmen to geeky software developers, edgy black-garbed artists, and bohemian muscians. In a remarkable fusion of history and progressiveness, Ireland has turned cities like Dublin into lifestyle centers for dynamic creative people and those who want to be around such amenities."
-Richard Florida
The Rise of the Creative Class
and how it's transforming work, leisure, community and everyday life

The problem is not to design a building, per se. The problem is to anchor a new, vibrant neighbourhood and, by extension, articulate that neighbourhood's raison d'etre.

The Authority has endowed this project with great development advantages:
- location (edge, confluence, corner, terminus, exposure)
- height
- celebrity tenant
- nightclub / restaurant
This project will speak. The question remains, 'What will it say about the city of Dublin and what will it say to the world?'

Artists (U2) will occupy the top floors. Especially in light of Richard Florida's analysis, we believe that the subtext is: Art is Vitality. Where art is produced, the blood is flowing. Dublin is an international city, and, international cities are centers for art and culture, not only commerce. We believe that this project should articulate this unambiguously. We believe this project should be an ally of art.

We propose that U2's Studio should be one in a tower composed of a collection of artists' studio-flats. On the tower's external core is created a Luminous Canvas- a translucent scrim of light-emitting material. This ephemeral armature will nightly display original works.

Primary exhibition/curatorial rights would reside with the tower's creative residents, with the city retaining additional rights. Power for this Luminous Canvas is to be derived from the flows of the Liffey and Dodder Rivers as well as from the tidal influence of the sea. This will be a tangible demonstration of the potentials of sustainable design and will directly connect the project to the same waters that have historically fed the city in the broadest of senses.