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U2 Tower, Dublin

Winners of the international design competition and selected from over 600 entries

Design for the 'U2 Tower' located in Dublin and was designed by 'Dublin Design Studio'

Project Description

The winner of an international competition run by the Dublin Docklands Development Authority, this proposal was selected from a field of over 600 entries. The location of the landmark tower is the highly visible junction of the Rivers Liffey and Dodder at the sea approach to Dublin. Originally standing 78 metres tall, it was decided that the area masterplan would be revised in order to allow an increase in scale to 130 metres whilst retaining the tower’s slenderness and dramatic twisting form.

Selected from an international field, a design team of specialist engineers and cost consultants was appointed in 2005 to develop the design of the tower to realisation. The eventual design employed cutting edge technologies which were utilised in order to realise the both complex form of the building and to maximise the potential floor area of the building within the very restricted site adjacent to two rivers. The building included public functions to the ground floor levels, 182 highly specified apartments which rotated around the central circular core and was crowned the suite including recording studios for the rock band U2. The design was awarded a Section 25 Certificate in August 2006 and issued for developer tender by the DDDA in November of the same year.

To facilitate the chosen form of procurement for the U2 Tower, the design package included a performance specification, general layouts and indicative details for the key areas of the building which formed a substantial package of information and covered all aspects of the proposal and was delivered in a very short timescale from the award of the Section 25 application.

The U2 Tower was to be a mixed-use building to be developed at the junction of Sir John Rogerson’s Quay and Britain Quay in Dublin’s docklands. The site is within the administrative area of Dublin Docklands Development Authority and is subject to the provisions of the Dublin Docklands Area Master Plan 2003 and the Grand Canal Dock Amending Planning Scheme, July 2006. The U2 Tower was to comprise a double height entrance hall, a mix of 1, 2 and 3 bed apartments in a building with a shoulder parapet at 100 metres above street level crowned with a new recording studio for U2 in a penthouse to a final height of 134 metres.

The proposal for the site presented a dynamic twisted tower, clad in a smooth glazed skin rising from a canopied entrance plaza on Sir John Rogerson’s Quay and engaging with the historic quay walls at the confluence of the River Liffey, the River Dodder and the Grand Canal. This landmark, a symbolic beacon at the end of Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, creates a new interface between the regenerated docklands of the static city and the ever-moving landscape of the river and tidal basins.

At the scale of the city, our intention was to achieve an interplay of light, structure and material that will heighten the public experience and awareness of this new landmark. This individual perception, as part of a shared human experience, can create a sense of delight and wonder and strengthen a sense of connection to the wider city. 

The enclosing skin must perform more than just the task of enclosure, it must provide solar protection, privacy as necessary and should contribute to the sustainable performance of the building. The depth of the façade is detailed to emphasise a depth of reflection during the day and similarly a depth of luminosity at night, the integration of the architectural lighting strategy for the overall building reinforcing this emphasis.

A transition (services) floor and a ‘multi-purpose’ level separate the residential tower from the recording studio above. The central core serving the residential tower terminates at the transition level while the main staircase and eccentrically located designated lift continues to the U2 Studio above. The transition levels provide total acoustic separation between the two uses and also houses M&E plant for both the U2 studio above as well as the residential accommodation below. The recording studio is located over two levels, accommodating a double-height recording studio and control room with reception areas, office and ancillary studio spaces.

At campshire level the building opens out to Sir John Rogerson’s Quay, Britain Quay and the waterside. Overhead, a finely detailed glass-to-glass canopy extends into the tower plaza providing protection from inclement weather and acting as a windshield from down draughts. The entrance plaza, canopy and double height entrance hall provide a strong visual base to the tower.
The overall ‘twisted’ form of the U2 Tower is created by rotating the square plan form anti-clockwise around a central axis through an angle of 45 degrees over a height of 130 metres. This central axis corresponds to the centre of the building's core and the twist creates the geometry of a continuous helical form. The angle of rotation of 45 degrees translates into a consistent rotation per vertical metre of 0.3461 degrees or 1.0729 degrees over the standard residential floor to floor height of 3.1m. The twist continues over the entire height of the building.

The slenderness ratio is prescribed as the ratio of the height to width of the tower and is critical in the reading the elegance of the building. Given the rotating geometry of the tower, the method of calculating the slenderness is the ratio of the building’s diagonal dimension in plan of 37.6 metres (an agreed methodology over the standard method of using the width of the plan form) with that of the overall height of 130 metres resulting in a Design Absolute maximum Slenderness Ratio of 1:3.46.

The geometry of the dynamic cut through the top-most section of the building, is defined by projecting a straight line cut through the twisted form with a springing point at 106.1m AOD on the ‘Western’ corner of the building and running to the highest point of the tower at 134.1m AOD on the Eastern corner. The cut through the building form also defines the highest points of the North and South corners of the building’s façade at 120.1m AOD. It should be noted that although the projected cut line is straight, as nuance of the twisted form of the building, the resultant façade edge reads slightly curved.

The cut line also constrains the height of the 'building form' within the facade skin, which is limited such that no part protrudes beyond the cut line. By trimming the building’s form a series of set back terraces have been created which are accessed from the accommodation over the 100m datum. The orientation and extent of the volumes and the terraces on the upper levels have been determined by their rotation in relation to this cut.
Exterior view of the 'U2 Tower' located in Dublin and was designed by 'Dublin Design Studio'
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