U2HQ Studio in Dublin is a technological work horse executed to evoke ease and simplicity of use. The spaces are used for both rehearsal and recording and are designed to be easily adaptable to frequent changes in technology. The success of this project is exemplified by the fact that all recent U2 work is produced from start to finish in their home town.

The extraordinary location for this project, south facing over a the Grand Canal Dock, demanded that this studio, unlike a typical recording studio, should not be ‘bunker’ like and to the contrary should have plenty of daylight, fresh air and, preferably, access to the dockside. All of the Ground Floor rooms of the studio, Rehearsal/ Recording Room, Control Room and Green Room have direct access to the dockside allowing the spaces to be naturally daylit and ventilated. The biggest benefit is, of course, that this working environment enjoys the amenity that is the Grand Canal Dock.

Again, unlike a typical studio, the client also required that the main working spaces should be flexible and interchangeable and so the Control Room is linked to the Rehearsal/ Recording Room by a large quadruple glazed sliding screen to allow the easy replacement and on/off- hire of up-to-date studio equipment as well as allowing the Control Room to be used as a Rehearsal/ Recording Room and vice verce.

In this building acoustic engineering is most concerned with the Rehearsal/ Recording Room and the Control Room. The design approach is a conventional acoustic design approach of a ‘room within a room’ whereby the ceiling, floors and walls of the Control Room and the Rehearsal/ Recording Room are isolated from each other and from the enclosing structure and building envelope. This is achieved by floating the 100mm deep reinforced concrete floor slab on a 30mm high density insulation decoupling quilt. Walls of a steel skeleton clad on both sides with 25mm of plasterboard infilled with high density insulation are isolated from the existing building by proprietary isolation units, similarly the twin plasterboard slabbed ceiling is suspened from the existing structure on acoustic isolation hangers. Windows are quadruple glazed as are the opening windows to the dock-side. These opening windows are also fitted with proprietary acoustic seals.