The Nebula Tower revives the monumentality and historical significance of San Jose’s old light tower into a contemporary landmark with a technical design expression corresponding to our time. To reinvent the void and the mass as well as the light and the materialized, the Nebula Tower is vast yet light, precisely formed yet ephemeral, like a nebular cloud with vacuum inside. In daytime, the lattice grid and the nebulous figure of the tower offers changing images in different perspectives. At night, the superimposed light transforms the landmark and endows the void tower with visual forms within the grid.

The Nebula Tower revives the monumentality and historical significance of San Jose’s old light tower into the contemporary city landmark with a technical design expression corresponding to our time. It provides individuals with multifaceted visiting experience, as well as a collective memory that transcends time, creating a dynamic city image for the sustainable development of the Arena Green and its surroundings.

Our design places a neutral cube with vaguely defined boundary at the Arena Green West bank. The cube is at the length of 180 feet and composed of a lattice grid rotates 45 degree to its orthogonal form, with a hollow tower embedded within. Four arched tunnels radiate to connect the flow at the ground level. People can gather in the arena at the bottom of the tower to meditate skyward and interact with each other on the floating platforms within the lattice grid.

Featuring the openness and lightness of the form, the external orthogonal lattice grid celebrates the contribution and innovation of Silicon Valley to our digitalized age. And the internal negative form of the light tower, with its tribute to the historical development of the city, reflects our gratitude and confidence in our past.

Contemporary technology empowers us with the technique and ideation to reinvent the void and the mass as well as the light and the materialized. The Nebula Tower is hence vast yet light, precisely formed yet ephemeral, like a nebular cloud with vacuum inside. During the daytime, the equivocal form of the grid and the nebulous figure of the tower offers changing images with the shift of spectating perspective. At night, light is superimposed. It endows the grid and tower with visual forms, transforms the landmark into a realm of infinite possibility and imagination.

The juxtaposition of grid and tower offers our answer to the landmark of our time, that it should be more than a riveted symbolic image, but a place designed to embrace civic engagement and culture significance. With its capacity for diversity and ambiguity, it is a place to inspire, to imagine, and to create.