The Data Bridge

The Data Bridge | 서울도시건축비엔날레

Client: Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism Program: Hybrid Data Center Location: Seoul, Korea Team: COL.C, Soyoung Kim, Sungjin Kang, Seongeun Jeong, Youngyoon Kim, Mingyu Lee, Myeongju Ryu, Donghyuk Kang, JaeEun Lee, Hyunsoo Jang Year: 2020

With a continuous increase in data proliferation and over 15 zettabytes of data expected by 2025, data centers will continue to play a vital role in the ingestion, storage, and management of information. Often hidden from the public in a remote location, data centers are architecturally simple non-descriptive boxes. As our lifestyles and cites have become more data-driven, the more vital our data centers become. How will the future of data centers evolve and adapt to meet our changing world? How can data centers become more than just a digital factory?

SEOUL AS A DIGITALLY CONNECTED CITY

South Korea is one of the most technologically advanced and digitally connected countries in the world with constant innovations that make it a perfect place to set up a data center. South Korea has the fastest local Internet speeds in the world with almost 90% of the population having access. Seoul, the fourth-largest metropolitan economy in the world and known for its powerful and stable IT infrastructure, is an opportune location to provide connection points to both China and East Asia with low risk of natural disasters and at an affordable price compared to other markets in Asia Pacific. As a result, Seoul is seeing an increase in data center investments from global tech giants and data center providers.

NEED FOR ENERGY EFFICIENCY

Not environmentally sound or sustainable, data centers consume vast amounts of energy and have a large carbon footprint as the airline industry. Servers absorb a lot of electrical power and need to be constantly cooled down to avoid overheating problems. Nowadays companies like Google are building data centers designed to integrate the building with water cooling system instead of air cooling. It is 3,500 times more efficient than air cooling since water can be brought much closer to the heat source. Thus, there is a need to rethink how to design more sustainable centers, that will dramatically improve energy efficiency and consider renewable energy sources.