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landmark [lændma k]
n.
   1. a prominent or well-known object in or feature of a particular landscape.
   2. an important or unique decision, event, fact, discovery, etc.
   3. a boundary marker or signpost.
Source: The Collins English Dictionary © 1998 HarperCollins Publishers

A Landmark must stand out from its context, both existing and future. The Tower must be a unique object which acts as gatepost, marker and focal point.

The building responds to its maritime context and its built surroundings, reflected in its robust form and materials. The unified form deliberately avoids the sense of scale provided by the rhythmic puncturing of windows, to create an emblematic object-building in the tradition of the lighthouse and the Martello tower. The outer skin is formed in steel mesh creating a filter between the inner life of the building and the public life of the city. The building's location suggests the colour red, signifying a lateral mark on the port side of the channel.

By day the sun reflects off the translucent mesh to create the impression of a solid object but by night the lights from the glazed interior highlight the transparency of the material. The glass inner skin is revealed at the base and at the top of the tower, connecting with the city physically and visually. The space between the mesh and the glass is utilised as private external space. The central core houses the vertical circulation and forms the primary structure for the tower element. Duplex apartments are cantilevered from the core and open onto double height terraces within the outer skin. The core is capped by the recording room which sits in the centre of the plan allowing a glazed enclosure on all sides and overhead to form the studio suite surrounded by a 360^o viewing terrace.

The platform houses the commercial, social and cultural activities which attract urban life to the area; places to eat, drink, shop, play and dance. Basement car parking is accessed by car lift and accommodates parking for the band and the residents of the tower. The lower ground floor Restaurant/Food Hall opens onto a south-facing sheltered courtyard. A bandstand at the southern tip of the site, with a retractable canopy roof, facilitates outdoor performances. This is overlooked by an indoor market at ground floor which can spill out on to the campshire to the east. A gym at first floor provides a social and commercial function and the top two floors of the platform contain commercial office space. This accommodation is supplemented at ground level by a café bar opening onto the campshire. The gym also contains a juice bar with views up and down stream. A nightclub/bar at fourth floor level opens onto a sheltered beer garden on the platform roof which is sheathed by the mesh carapace. The tower element houses twenty duplex apartments, each with at least two bedrooms, generous double height living/dining areas and terraces. All apartments will benefit from either morning or evening sunlight.

The tower becomes a boundary marker in the regeneration of the Grand Canal Docks and an emblem for the Dublin Docklands Area.