Architects: Metastudio
2003
The present competition entry has set itself the task to revive - in middle of architectural nomansland - lost dockland memories. Some images and associations: the wind-blown sails of a galleon leaving for a far-off continent, or a pair of prismatic-shaped icebergs lingering in the water.
A fair-faced concrete platform beginns at the southern edge of the site as a gently sloping garden. It creates at the level of the first floor a free deck open to the landscape. The high lobby on this level - allowing the sun to shine through - avoids an excessive over-shadowing of the street and of the riverside promenade.
The contours of the site are confined on both sides by the wings of a structural glasing precipitating far beyond the limits of the lobby space. They are creating both wind-protected terrace-zones for recreational purpose, and within the lobby, a second protective skin. It is thus conceivable to occasionally open single sliding façade fields on office level to improve the quality of the working-space and create animation - in the manner of balconies.
The towers are interconnected by bridges. The office floors are visually comunicating across the lobby.
The U2 Studio situated at the northern edge of the site sets a sign at the top of the building by the odd-looking fair-faced concrete terrace plunging out of the building - within a glass courtyard. A glass juke-box slit open to the sky over Dublin.