Our approach to the project takes the move from one of the many contraddictions of the brief. On the given slim wedge-shaped site the request for a minimum floor area of 9,500 sq. metres and the maximum height of 60 metres for the tower, together with the requirement of a total floor area of 560 sq. metres for the U2 studio, made it hard to comply with the slenderness ratio set out in the Planning Scheme as well as with a typology coupling a platform with a tall building.

So we decided to work on mass subtraction. First we filled the site with all the possibile mass and then started to carve out interstitial spaces and to determine the tall element of the tower and the lower one of the platform.

We split in two the tower both to separate the residential and the office functions and also to enhance the slenderness. The two parts of the tower have different skins: the residential part has stone façades with recessed long balconies and protruding windows, while the office one has a translucent glass curtain-wall becoming more and more transparent towards the top to reveal the "floating bubble" containing the sound-proof recording room for the band. This element, shiny, suspended and misterious, reflects the surrounding light both at night and day and is recognizable from far away making the glass building a city landmark.
To underline this we also wanted the building to go straight to the ground instead of resting on the platform.
Each floor accomodates a completely glazed office space and two apartments different in size (70 and 120 sq. metres) and both with balconies. Offices and apartments share the stairs but have separate lifts and separate lobbies. Stairs and lifts reach also all the levels of the parking garage.

The platform, a compact but twisted and cracked mass cladded with rusted corten steel sheets and heavily resting on the ground brings the memory of the old containers that used to crowd the areas of the docks. And just like a container it may host interchangeable functions: following the requests of the brief, we placed in it a restaurant and a cafe' at ground level so that they can expand outside in the summer, a disco club on the first floor and related offices on the two remaining levels. Passageways and suspended footbridges connect the different parts of the building. We added a flower shop, a newsstand and an ice-cream parlour. The side of the building facing the water is cut and recessed for the first three levels to leave space to the 8 metres wide pedestrian route while a glass façade reveals its contents. An elevated promenade running along the water side provides both an horizontal connection among the buildings and a link to public stairs and lift. It also offers great views of the docks. Underneath the last part of the promenade and hanging from it there is a giant electronic display for info and images of all sorts.

The parking garage is on three levels underground and provides parking spaces for the offices and the apartments located in the tower.

The U2 band has a private parking garage at ground floor accessibile directly from Britain Quay as well as a discrete private access guarded by security with a large lift. As requested, the two top floors accomodate the band's studio. The part above the offices ("glass building") hosts the already mentioned "floating bubble" with the recording room completely isolated in the middle and, thus, avoiding blank external walls. Above the part on top of the apartments ("stone building"), a "sunken roof garden" leads to the terrace on the very top of the building.