A Spa in the Cloud: Data Hotels, Hanging Baths, and Thermosocial Exchange Peter Zuroweste This project unfolds out of the possibilities latent within the data center as an emergent contemporary typology undergoing transformation and proliferation on a global scale. As zoom calls, cryptocurrency mining, artificial intelligence, gaming, virtual reality and other trending data processes gain traction, the powers of computation and the networks which connect them consume increasingly concerning amounts of energy. The main challenge facing contemporary data centers is energy, both its consumption and its byproduct: excess heat. This project captures the enormous amount of heat excess generated by data centers and utilizes it as the basis for developing a thermal spa complex. The somatic experience of bathing counters the virtual experience of cloud-based activities in a hybrid program which intentionally conflates the physical and atmospheric sensations of the spa with the digital and technocratic processes of the data center. The proposal to integrate these programs engages the deep architectural history of the Roman Baths as a cue for discovering how digital exchanges via server farms can be coupled with social exchange via thermal baths as a way to redefine what it means to connect through the cloud. How can data centers minimize the data transfer latency in a way which uses the thermodynamic of latent heat to phase-change water into vapor and transform the malaise of digital isolation into the joy of collective cleansing?
“The Marvelous Baths of the Romans,” The Graphic, August 16, 1924
Longitudinal Section, showing Cascading Baths of different temperatures Peter Zuroweste