PROJECT STATEMENT - SPARK

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SPARK’s design will bring San Jose an unparallel icon. A dynamic experience that is both experiential and interactive. An Icon that will symbolize elegance and intelligence the essence of San Jose: Innovation. SPARK will awe visitors with the spectacle of power and energy while providing San Jose’s citizens and visitors alike with a California botanical experience. 

 

More importantly, SPARK seeks to go beyond a physical and celebratory Icon for San Jose and Silicon Valley. SPARK will create the largest interactive social giving construct in the history of the world.  Donations to worldwide social causes by Silicon Valley companies, individuals, and other visitors from anywhere in the world will ‘supercharge’ the Icon. The Axons (masts), resemble via biomimicry the axons in our brain’s neurons and will indicate donations in progress with pulsating lights and as donations accumulate, those lights will continue to rise up the Axons until the supercharged energy (donation goals) is reached, and the dendrites (tips) will discharge a spectacle of energy and celebration of giving.  Different giving campaigns can create different events to celebrate large donations, innovations, and other sparks.

SPARK is designed to be experienced from multiple points of view. At times, approaching it from north or south, it is perceived as a rhythmic array of Axons, encouraging movement at their base but also up the elevated green SPARK Park so visitors can experience being between the Axons. Yet from other points of view, the icon almost disappears as is the case when viewed from the Hanging Botanical Gardens across the river on the opposite side of the Park. These Botanical Gardens, green walls, and flora representative of California will be the perfect platform to observe sparks during supercharged events.

 

Resiliency is paramount to SPARK. To Achieve Zero-Energy status, SPARK will use multiple strategies to balance consumption with production. In terms of passive design, louvers, natural ventilation, and green roofs will minimize energy needs. For active strategies, Solar BIPVs canopies, human-step-activated piezoelectric pavers, and automotive wind-speed-generated wind turbines will generate power for the complex. A percentage of all donations given for SPARK spectacles will be invested into solar-generated power to support energy generation.

To balance water, large underground cisterns will collect all rainwater necessary for building use and irrigation. A filtration process will turn greywater into potable water, and black water will be spread to planting areas via drip leech field systems.