- Systemic changes
Today, climbing a tower for cityscape vistas is not a novelty. Every smartphone will access 360-degree views from The New Urban Confluence Tower with augmented reality displays providing information on the resident companies and organizations’ progress towards their renewable energy and energy-conservation targets. The tower will provide real-world feedback on that progress, as excess renewable electricity is channeled into a filigree of lights spiraling its height. This unique lighting design in motion serves as a progress meter for San José and shifts the attention from the skyline back to civic space below where transformation happens.
Our design proposal for the tower refrains from ambiguity and investigates the use of primitive forms as the generator of its complexity. As a piece of civic architecture, it investigates to what extent modernist ideas about hierarchy, repetition and clarity could be re-thought as a reaction to the post-truth era we’re in.
Everyone with a smartphone will have access to 360-degree views from The New Urban Confluence Tower. Furthermore, these views will be layered with augmented reality displays providing information on the resident companies and organizations’ progress towards their renewable energy and energy-conservation targets.
The New Urban Confluence Light Tower will touch down lightly towards the south-western corner of the park without harming any existing trees. Taking advantage of San José’s suitable weather, the base of the tower will be an accessible amphitheatre providing space for people from diverse backgrounds to engage in discussions, performances and demonstrations.
The tower itself will provide real-world feedback on that progress, as excess renewable electricity is channelled into a filigree of lights spiralling the tower’s height. This unique lighting design in motion will serve as a progress meter for San José and, in time, with a fully-lit beacon as the example San José sets for a world moving toward a greener future.
The tower’s hybrid structure will consist of timber and steel in order to achieve harmony within its natural surroundings and to minimize its overall carbon footprint. Timber glulam members with steel connections at the core will be reinforced with steel cables wrapping in the counter direction.
