Churches of the XXI century or the Big Tower for Big data

/ Architecture /
Of course, you know that the Netherlands is one of the leaders in the EU in the availability of broadband Internet: it provides 93 percent of the population. The first data processing centers appeared here back in 1988. But if at first these were inconspicuous gray boxes in industrial zones, recently the situation has changed - the buildings of the data centers of the international provider Equinix look like real temples of digital technologies.

12-storey tower NovAM4 data center, designed by Benthem Crouwel Architects, was opened in the summer of 2017 on the territory of the Equinix campus. One of the members of the royal family even participated in the opening ceremony.

Photo: Jannes Linders

The 72-meter-high building with vertical profiles on the facade harmoniously fit into the ensemble of two earlier buildings: the first data center AM3, which has the appearance of a squat box with horizontal blinds made of anodized aluminum, giving its facade a resemblance to the grille of a car radiator; and an office in a black shell with a glass cube atrium. They were also designed by Benthem Crouwel Architects and opened in 2012. All three buildings are connected by covered passages.

The new tower is distinguished by an original and somewhat aggressive decoration of facades made of triangular aluminum profiles, black on one side and silver on the other. They become narrower at the top and create an optical illusion, making the tower more slender and dissolving the cloud storage in the clouds above Amsterdam.

Photo: Jannes Linders

Attractive, but not friendly - this is a safety issue

Data storage and processing are processes that require a high level of security. This is how one of the founders of Benthem Crouwel Architects, Joost Vos, describes the approach to solving the problem: "The buildings had to fit into the environment - be attractive, but not too welcoming. We all want our personal data to be safe, but we don't want to see fortresses surrounded by barbed wire in our cities and public places." Having abandoned the fence, the complex was surrounded by water.

A blood-red transition-bridge between the office and the Equinix data center. Photo: Jannes Linders
The control system at the entrance to the complex was built by Equinix. Photo: Jannes Linders
Flexible, open layout of the data center. Photo: Jannes Linders
Flexible, open layout of the data center. Photo: Jannes Linders

The reservoir around the perimeter not only plays the role of a barrier, but is also used as part of the cooling system, because the data processing process is a hot process in the literal sense. The excess heat produced here, not compensated by mechanical and water cooling, is used to heat the other buildings of the Amsterdam Science Park.

In general, the entire complex is an example of not only stable, but also flexible architecture. Since the data processing industry tends to miniaturization, the internal spaces of data centers have a free layout - and at any moment the machine rooms can be transformed into offices, laboratories, and even - according to the project authors - into residential houses.

Image source: Benthem Crouwel Architects
Image source: Benthem Crouwel Architects
Image source: Benthem Crouwel Architects
Image source: Benthem Crouwel Architects
Image source: Benthem Crouwel Architects

Equinix is ​​a leader in the data processing market, the largest international provider that owns 175 data centers around the world. Therefore, we have added images of storage facilities from other parts of the planet to the photo selection.

Equinix data center in Pantin, France. It was opened in 2015 after the reconstruction of the modernist building of the postal sorting center according to the project of Ryd Brevin's office RB-Architects.

View of the Equinix data center in Toronto, opened in 2016. The facade of TR2 is finished with ceramic panels

And this is what the new Equinix data center in Silicon Valley looks like. SV10 – was opened in September 2017 at the Equinix campus in San Jose, California. $122 million was invested in its construction

Equinix SY4 in Sydney, Australia