BespokeBuilding:The new McCann FitzGerald building by architects Scott Tallon Walker - beside the proposed Calatrava bridge - combines practicality with aesthetics, writes Emma Cullinan.

You are off grid the minute you enter law-firm McCann Fitz- Gerald's new offices in Dublin's south docklands. The entrance is on the corner and from here you step across a double-height lobby and into a circular atrium with a great timber funnel shooting up its centre and through the roof, where it punctures the roofline as a disc with a sloped surface (the tilt helps achieve glare-free light). This building is not square.

Its designers Scott Tallon Walker have been creating some impressive atria of late - including the vast aperture in the centre of its St Vincent's Hospital building - and some large office buildings but this is something different. It is in marked contrast to a battle-grey defensive building by the same practice being built just across the Liffey, near the site for the proposed Santiago Calatrava bridge (see below).

McCann FitzGerald's building at Riverside One also has a friendly façade, its glazed front softened by the use of timber slats sitting in a double-skin elevation, their movement in response to changing levels of sunlight gives the building a kinetic quality. Further animation of the façade happens at night when low-energy, multicoloured LED lights illuminate the blinds.

So how did the solicitor's practice elicit such an impressive building? It seems that it was a belief in the architectural firm it employed and a commitment to the building, which it owns. "We weren't having arguments with the developer because we were the developer," says partner Timothy Bouchier-Hayes, who has advised developers and public authorities on major construction projects. "We bought the site and ran a limited architectural competition among four practices: BKD, Michael Collins, Tony Reddy and Scott Tallon Walker and the standard was very good.

"Scotts are fantastic architects on detail and I come from a school where I know what I want and what will work and I knew that I could work with their style. When you go to Scotts you get Ronnie . He is proud of the brand and wants to see it done properly." Credit for the project also has to go to David Cahill who was the partner in charge of this build.

The idea was to have a building that had plenty of natural daylight in which people on different floors felt a connection with each other.

"We wanted light and flexibility," says Bouchier-Hayes. Something that has been achieved, says partner John Cronin: "You feel that you have participated in the day because you can see the sun."

The architects have responded to the brief by combining the practical elements with an aesthetically pleasing design. For instance, that sculptural funnel that emerges from the bamboo garden on the ground floor has a function - which is to remove stale air and that façade is a 'smart skin' which makes use of warming sun rays to heat the building as well as working to remove warm air on cold days. While the building is mechanically heated and cooled, this helps to reduce the amount of work that the system has to do by bringing ambient heat up and down.

The planning of the building has also been carefully considered, with the services all running down the south east edge of the building and the stairs placed in the façade to free up the central space.

Inside, many of the partitions are in glass to make the most of the incoming natural light and the design has a traditional feel while being contemporary. This is exemplified in the use of pared walnut panelling: a classic wood in a contemporary styling. Walnut even covers all of the filing cabinets, a feature requested by Cronin to avoid acres of grey metal.

Again Irish tradition is conjured up in the use of linen between panels of glass - instead of frosted glazing - where privacy is required. While tradition is linked with looking back, the company has also created classic s of the future by commissioning Irish designers to create one-off pieces of furniture throughout the building. These include Noel Whelan, Klimmeck and Henderson, Duff Tisdall, Stephen O'Briain and Joseph Walsh.

While the furniture looks traditional it is flexible and hi-tech. Many of the large tables can be split into smaller pieces - to accommodate various sized gatherings - and parts of table tops slide back to reveal various electrical sockets.

Technology has been neatly inserted throughout the building, for instance in the large glazed corner boardroom where the wall slides back to reveal a screen and microphones drop down from the ceiling and the blinds open and shut at the touch of a button. "The technology is very smart but looks simple," says Cronin.

Such technology combines with the flexible layout - including a suite of deal rooms which can be closed off and accessed via swipe card for visiting companies to use exclusively - for the use of staff and clients.

"The building gives a great sense of Dublin being a place to do business in," says Cronin, "and shows that Irish people can perform at this level."

Apart from the changed business outlook there is the new geographical view too. "It offers a perspective of Dublin that we haven't really seen before," says Cronin, looking out of the top-floor window up and down the Liffey, and across to where the new conference centre is being built.

Bouchier-Hayes is proud of the quality achieved and is excited by the new view. He describes how the wind can roar up the Liffey, creating waves. A bit like this building.