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Dublin's docklands define a conceptual edge to the large scale development of the city centre fabric, thus the Sir Rogerson's Quay site calls for monumental architecture that can simultaneously become a recognizable form while still maintaining a selfless reference that frame the life of the city centre beyond. This building seeks to free itself from its most critical mass at the centre, allowing visual permeability, while maintaining its monumental scale.

This landmark assumes the sublime posture necessary for a building on this prominent location to be construed as an internationally recognized event by ambitiously hoisting a significant mass to the vertical limits of the site and then projecting its celebrity component along the length of the site.

This symbolic attachment to the community and extension of the forward looking attitudes of contemporary Ireland to the greater international community is thus objectively framed as a new quayside gateway to the nation's capital.

Programme:
The programme is delineated by the three rectilinear components of the structure; the plinth, the tower, and the cantilever. The four story plinth serves the most public function respectfully hovering above the ground plane to allow for unobstructed views across the site to the East. The night club located under three floors of office accommodation are punctured by generous light wells that in some instances travel through the height of the plinths, circulating natural air and light into these spaces.

Rhythmic interplays occur on the underside of the cantilever as well as along the inside face of the apartment tower reflect the staggering of levels inside, thus creating a variety of internal heights atypical in most residential high rises. The residential tower commands the best views of the city and Wicklow landscape to the southeast while generating south facing balconies. Interior moveable wall and glass partitions allow for maximum flexibility to accommodate the individuals. Various different sized residences allow for "life-long" living and promote a sustainable occupation of the building. Each apartment over looks the roof garden of the plinth, which is in turn sheltered by the soaring canopy of U2 Studio.

The U2 Studio houses the band in as sensational a manner as possible. While being the most visually prominent element of the building creating its "public face", it still maximizes the privacy of internal occurrences.

The ground plane of the ground floor is subtlety manipulated to allow for clear views through the building connecting to the waterfront by dropping the section of the restaurant at the back half a level extending the public space through to the waterfront.

Materiality:
The building presents itself simultaneously at various scales, both distant and near. At close proximity, the continuous surface of the building is perforated with a delicate order of slot windows and smaller holes contributing a layer of texture to the design. Translucencies and transparencies of various degrees of scale and clarity perform a luminous concert on this façade, which cuts a relatively monolithic shadow as a frame during the day. Typically during the day, the building is solidified into a monumental mass by its reflective cladding, but by night its glows with the individual internal responses of its inhabitants offering a variable constellation of artificial light on the façade.