VERTICAL DELIRIUM

Project: Adaptive Reuse - Data center

Loction: Brown & Sharpe Manufacturing Company Complex, RI, USA

Year: 2022 Spring

Individual project

In the context of the rapid increase in the information industry, data digitizalizes our collective history into a giant repository of human cultural legacy. The data center, as a place for centralized management (storage, calculation, exchange) of data, is the same as the master brain. It is a super important asset for enterprises, for the public, and even for the entire human race.

It is evident that most of today's data centers are mainly one story high, windowless structures, with large open floor plates. However, are there any other possibilities? For instance, what would it be like if the data center became vertical? What kind of form it will be? What kind of image will it render? And how about its meaning?

Site plan

1st & 9th Floor plan

Save Land Resources

From the perspective of urban development, the future land resources will be more scarce, the value of unit area will be higher, and multiplication creates more usable area and expands the frontier in the sky. At the same time, as an adaptive reuse project, the design respects the original site and does not intend to break the original architectural pattern.

Become The Landmark

Data centers can be a landmark to showcase the technological progress of mankind. The abstract process of collecting data becomes an audiovisual experience, which creates new value in the data center. It can be seen and become an aesthetic. Technology is no mere means, but a way of revealing.

Exhibition

Instead of being like the traditional data center, which is hidden in the dark corners of the building with a veil of mystery. People can approach, appreciate, feel the continuous flow of data and learn about the behind-thescenes glimpses of how a data center works, just like visiting an exhibition.

Save Energy

The design site is located on the seaside, with plenty of natural wind. The tower-like structure can take full use of the natural wind and become a natural cooling tower. On the one hand, because the space extends vertically, the wind will not be blocked by the surrounding buildings, and the wind in all directions can fully exert its effect. At the same time, activating the natural chimney effect can maximize the efficient flow of chilled air.

Become The Infrastructure

In the post-human era, people's production and life rely on cutting-edge technology, data and human coexist, and the machine as a medium, in the form of a tower, like a plug-in, is placed into every corners of the city as the infrastructure of the future city. It's an activation of an area.