CHALLENGER DATA CENTER I
For Greenbox REONALD® conceptualized a new way of looking at Data Centers. What if todays chuncky, energy slurping data centers in ten years time would be the size of a small chip? It is like comparing the first 1960's computer - ENIAC - that had the size of an average one family house, to todays smartphone that is millions of times faster.
What if these expansive structures, that for the short term are occupied by data centers, were conceived as architecturally resilliant buildings that move away from our throw away world. Buildings that have a structural and spatial quality to them that make them worthwhile for generations to come. Like the industrial warehouses of the past century that now find new meaning in programs that never could have been conceived at their time of construction. This project attempts to do just that.
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Like a giant insect, this delicate concrete structure sits gently among the trees, raised above ground level on pilotis. Floors and roof span the full width of the building creating extremely flexible floorplans for now and the far future.
The 3 main programmatic components, Power, Data hall, and Cooling, are stacked on top of eachother. This makes for a more compact volume. It also provides sun shade and opportunity to benifit from passive cooling by cross ventilation.
The Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer (ENIAC), the modern age’s first computer. Image Source: Wikimedia Commons
What if todays chuncky, energy slurping data centers in ten years time would be the size of a small chip?
This adaptively reused industrial warehouse structure at Walsh Bay Wharf, Sydney beautifully illustrates our ambition for this project.
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