Incorporating data centers into urban spaces can improve lives.
Driven by near-universal internet access, smartphones and the rapid adoption of AI, humankinds’ reliance on data is growing exponentially. With our work and leisure time increasingly dependent on secure, reliable, and fast data services, global data creation is projected to grow more than 180 zettabytes by 20251One zettabyte is equal to a trillion gigabytes, or 1021 (1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) bytes. Statista. (n.d.). Volume of data/information created, captured, copied, and consumed worldwide from 2010 to 2025. Statista.. Consequentially, there’s a rising demand for more places to physically house data: Data Centers.
The challenge facing the industry today is that data centers consume a significant amount of energy. With no signs of slowing down – the amount of power required to operate data centers under construction globally has risen from 2.9 to 7.1 gigawatts (GW) in the past three years21.6GW prior to 2021, to 2.9GW in 2021, increasing to 4.1GW in 2022 and then in 2023 to 7.1GW under development in 63 markets globally. Cushman and Wakefield, 2024 Global Data Center Market Comparison, 2024. – this raises valid concerns about environmental impact and operating costs.
Combined with the fact that there is only so much available land worldwide, the need to balance the demand for data centers with responsible and available grid power use creates opportunities for innovation in the built environment industry. Data is now a critical global resource on which the quality of life of the world relies. This development makes data centers critical infrastructure that must be understood and integrated at a people-centric level to create symbiotic opportunities for our urban environments.
A major driver of the rising demand for data centers and the power that fuels them is the growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI). With a soaring global adoption of generative AI, the AI boom has led to 72% of organizations implementing AI this year3McKinsey Global Survey on AI, 1,363 participants at all levels of the organization, Feb 22–Mar 5, 2024. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai. OpenAI’s ChatGPT has become the fastest-growing consumer application in history, partnering with major players like Apple, Google, Amazon, Tesla, Meta, and Microsoft to enhance web searches, image generation, language processing, social networking, self-driving software, and more for everyday use.
This insatiable demand for AI is putting pressure on the data center industry to adapt. Currently, there are no large-scale data centers in Australia purpose-built for AI, unlike traditional cloud-based or co-location data centers, which are also experiencing strong market growth. Australia is just beginning to respond by incorporating lessons learned from more established markets abroad. Ultimately, the growing demand for AI will reshape the design of data centers in Australia in a way the local market has yet to experience, marking a permanent shift in their architecture to accommodate AI.
A typical cloud hyperscale or large co-location data centre site, like the one above, is made up of roughly 40 percent data hall space, 10 percent front of house space and 50 percent plant/equipment/circulation space.
In comparison, an AI data centre on the same site, with the same IT power capacity, has the potential to considerably change the geometry of a data centre. With the right cooling method, the data hall space is dramatically reduced. As a result, the building could reduce in size by roughly 30-40% – maintaining the same square meterage of front of house space and plant/equipment/circulation space as a cloud-based data centre.
The call to diversify data centers holds significant potential for the commercial sector. Office buildings possess the uninterrupted power supply, cooling systems and high-speed connectivity to make the integration of – or conversion to – a data center feasible.
If data centers are integrated into existing low yield areas of a commercial building, they can provide landholders with long and stable lease opportunities in an infinitely growing sector with making more efficient use of the power and land already in use on the site – providing an opportunity to make office buildings more useful and profitable.
For example, an office with a large floorplate has potential to house a data center in its core and revive an underused area with function and revenue. With 257,772 examples of B-grade, deep floorplate, commercial buildings in New York and Los Angeles alone, the insertion of data centers into the workplace presents significant capacity for urban regeneration globally.
A data center can be placed in the center of a commercial building with a large floorplate (a typology that has proven problematic post-pandemic), providing landholders with long and stable lease opportunities in an infinitely growing sector while making more efficient use of the power and land already in use on the site.
Concept sketch of of a masterplanned community with a data centre alongside other typologies. Drawing by Neil Hill.
Data centers also have the potential to make a positive impact in the residential sector. By leaning on investment in data centers – a market with an annual growth rate of 7.49 percent – the current affordable housing shortage can look to be more financially viable by pairing with an elevating sector.
As in the commercial space, the possibility of co-locating data centers within apartments and residential precincts poses a solution to the lack of land capacity in the data center market. As a new neighbour in these urban cores, a data center will have minimal impact on aspects like traffic and is unlikely to negatively impact the everyday lives of individuals within the community. Due to its location, NSW’s Bradfield City Centre’s Master Plan is an example of a community ripe for this style of integration.
Perhaps the most impactful opportunity to arise from this integration is the potential that lies in the use of heat – a key byproduct of data centers. Excess heat generated by servers can be captured and recycled to provide heat for the local community, heating homes, pools or even used to support hydroponic farming practices This approach has been successful in several case studies worldwide, including Meta’s Odense Data Centre in Denmark which contributes to heating nearly 7,000 homes as well as Equinix PA10 in Paris which provided the heating for the 2024 Olympic training pool in Paris.
Concept sketch of a masterplanned community with a data centre alongside other typologies hypothesising the exchange of surplus heat generated from a local data centre to use as heat supply for a local swimming pool or industrial farming hydroponics. Drawing by Neil Hill.
The aforementioned data center renaissance requires built environment professionals to lead the transformation of data centers into community serving assets. This transformation requires the industry to work together to:
Consider integration. When and where possible, architects and operations should consider the benefits of integrating a data center. Although not every kind of data center can work as part of an office or apartment, we must consider all data centers in the context of how they improve community. Typical mixed-use buildings mesh their competing interests and complement one another, why can’t data centres enter that mix?
Reduce energy consumption.
To address the significant amount of energy they consume, data centers must incorporate environmentally positive design principals.
Although there’s currently zero likelihood of a data centre’s roof being covered in solar panels (because its roof space would be occupied by other plant and equipment), the choice to co-locate one within a master planned community of other building typologies with adjacent empty roofs will provide an offset to the huge power draw of data centres from the grid. Such colocation is already underway, with some data centres sharing a site with power generation assets like solar and wind farms, as well as nuclear or hydro power.
Data Centre for Telstra, designed by Woods Bagot.
Embrace added security. As with all precious things, data must be protected. As the prevalence of data breaches and nefarious actors intent on stealing sensitive information grows mainstream, data centers provide a haven for safe and secure data to be physically stored away from prying eyes and perverse breaches.
Consequentially, any integrated data center provides a challenge for ensuring security is maintained. 24/7 security monitoring and physical security deterrents would need to operate and protect the data center asset, meshing with the wider development as much as possible.
The challenge here is twofold: mindset and integration. The ability for a data center to be included in a mixed-use development securely requires users to see the benefits of heightened security and for designers to integrate the facilities in ways that reinforce those benefits. To strike this balance, looking to other public buildings that house highly secure areas – like airports – and applying similar design methodologies can ensure the integration of data centers with commercial or residential developments without it having to be separated entirely.
As a physical expression of the relationship we hold with our data, data centers will move closer to people and social cores in a way that prompts architects to consider the relationship between data centers, communities, and individuals. As a result, tomorrow’s data centers must respond to demands for contextual, human-centric design that adds benefit to its community.
The future of data center design must be expected to support community via integration, appropriate land use and the incorporation of environmentally positive design principals while serving as an added revenue source for developers and building owners.
Mitch Clifton, Senior Designer.
Experienced in a unique range of typologies, primarily Data Centre design, Transport, and Industrial Architecture, Mitch is set apart by his attention to detail and belief in process.
A Data Centre specialist, Mitch has years of experience with both hyperscale and co-location retail data centre clients, as well as global tech data centre providers. As a leader within the rapidly developing sector, he possesses a comprehensive understanding of the latest technologies, infrastructure requirements, and best practices.
Mitch has led the design, documentation, and stakeholder coordination for multiple data centre projects. Demonstrating extensive typology knowledge, he ensures that designs meet client, budget and regulatory requirements. On top of this experience, Mitch has previously been seconded by a global cloud provider to assist as a client side architectural ‘subject matter expert’ for their APAC data centre lease and development sites through the design and construction phases.
Media contact Tess Dolan Insights & Communications Leader – Global
Tess is Woods Bagot’s Global Insights Leader. Passionate about clarity, relevance and the creation of genuinely interesting content, Tess works with our innovators to create insights on the future of design, as applied to its impact on how we live, work, travel, play, learn, stay healthy and anything in-between. See Woods Bagot’s Journal for more.
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