Shane Stankowski :: Architecture Portfolio :: Portfolio

Portfolio: Landmark Tower:

<< back to portfolio

Landmark Tower - Completed Design Development (2003)
The nature of this project was to answer an Architectural competition brief for the Landmark Tower / U2 Studio in a mixed development at Britain Quay, Dublin, Ireland. A urban strategy was offered, addressing the re-development of the entire Dublin Dockland region, and in turn using this strategy to resolve an architectural statement at the tip of the development. Deriving from the text "Programming the Urban Surface", Alex Wall and bleeding these ideas with "The Capsular City", Lieven de Cauter, the U2 tower looks to involve these ideas through developing the 'capsular'. Dissecting the notion of the 'generic city' across the peninsular, in what is almost a physical contradiction, the tower embraces the literal capsule, through the built form. Challenging the notion of 'capsule architecture', the tower looks to exploit the physical capsules in their program, and cross programming, folding diverse programs together within the capsular environment. Folding and thickening are two key principals, which have been implemented across the site, and the tower, to create a dynamic, smooth geology, and combined with the materiality of the tower, play on the 'spectacle' within the city. Gradually applied across the site, capitulating at the tower, the urban strategy looks to combine the flow of people, breaking down traditional zone separations across the site, in order to develop a more fluid and interactive layering of planes and spaces.