As an alternative to the normative mixed-use building that satisfies multiple parameters at the cost of a coherent and singular identity, we imagine a porous urban attractor, a carved block, which provides multiple spatial scenarios for the shopper, office worker and park-goer. The interface between building and urban life is extended by the insertion of a public green space into the heart of the building, a new public ground on the third floor that is both shaded and open to the sky. Local building techniques are employed in unconventional ways: concrete cores twist diagonally up the building; glass panels are ‘slumped’ providing structural integrity to the individual components and a triangulated steel frame is brought to the perimeter as an exoskeleton, allowing for a column free interior.