Towers have too often become symbols of ego, Gaia reveals a new kind of icon expressing the fragile balance and interconnected nature of our world. This project is a homage to the Eiffel Tower, but with a Silicon Valley Twist: A digitally generated timber tower swirling into the sky, celebrating the environmental technology of our age. The Tower of Gaia will have a self-sufficient restaurant providing a panoramic view of the Silicon Valley, serving organic food that grows within the structure itself. This rich flora will form an educational journey open to everyone.

Towers have too often become symbols of power and ego. We would like to reveal a new kind of icon expressing the fragile balance and interconnected nature of our world. A symbol of love and of peaceful duality in California, a state that fostered an entire generation around a peaceful movement singing “The times they are a changin”. This project is a homage to the Eiffel Tower, but with a Silicon Valley Twist:

A digitally generated timber tower swirling into the sky, celebrating the environmental technology of our age.

The Tower of Gaia will have a unique self-sufficient restaurant providing a panoramic view of the Silicon Valley. It will serve organic food that grows within the structure itself.

This rich flora will form an educational journey that the public will be able to experience whilst going up the platforms through an intricate staircase or an exciting lift following the curvature of the building itself. The tower of Gaia is an exemplary beacon of net zero carbon design. Throughout the building life cycle and waste management during construction up to operation, Gaia will adopt a regenerative approach. The tower will deploy active systems that sequester carbon during its operation to offset its own embodied carbon and generate enough energy to operate and store for a vertical hydroponics farm targeting beyond zero carbon.

One of Gaia’s side elevations, resembling to an X Chromosome, which is found in many organisms, both male and female. Chromosomes are the molecules defining DNA, the blueprint of all living species. An icon must speak to all of us, in an inclusive way. It cannot favour one organism over another. It must unite.

The Internet has helped connecting people worldwide and has made technology empowering and democratic. Isaac Azimov and James Lovelock envisaged “Gaia” as the ideal planetary state, in which all beings would connect into one, in the spirit of Buckminster Fuller’s Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth. The Tower of Gaia will help us remember we’re all in this together.