| Because over 80% of the space, infrastructure, and cost of any data center is devoted to the server rooms that store information, these buildings are more machine than a place of inhabitation – hard drive as ""house."" The design challenge is how to humanize this ""machine."" This building separates the ‘house’ for machines from the 'house' for people by articulating them as separate volumes connected by a glass link that also serves as the entry point to the facility. The design investigation of this project focuses on the texture of each volume.
For the administration wing, the texture is brick – identical in type and color to the brick office buildings on the rest of the campus. The server wing, a much larger volume, is constructed of precast concrete panels, a material choice driven by its cost efficiency. The horizontal weaving texture of the tilt up panels is a three-dimensional interpretation of the brick pattern, with added depth and offsets. The asymmetrical weaving pattern is intended to create a variety of shadows throughout the day, establishing a quiet visual experience that breaks down the scale of these expansive walls, much like the silent working sand complexities of technology breaks down mounds of information into decipherable bits. At the top of the panels, metal screens that continue the weaving pattern are inserted to provide air circulation to the massive air handlers which utilize the naturally cooler northern air for the benefit of the facility, thus reducing energy use. The texture for the utility yard fencing completes this ensemble of volumes. Forming yet another mass, the texture of this fence is composed of woven plastic strips in alternating colors of gray and brick red.
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