Leonard Palmer

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Data Pub(lic)

Data Center as a Catalyst for Innovation and Engagement

Harnessing the Future Option Studio
Fall 2021
Harvard GSD
Instructors: Thomas Osland & Catherine Murray
 Data centers are popping up everywhere in order to catch up with the growing tech needs of today. But they are built to only respond to a demand, detached from its local context. Closed off to the public and built in rural areas remote from human activity, they act like fortresses. Data Pub(lic) is a masterplan proposal that flips the narrative by putting data centers at the foreground, as opposed to them being a mere response to the growing demand for data storage and processing power. Through the synthesis of three entities - the Data Center, the Tech Hub, and the Pub - Data Pub(lic) aims to bring a sense of place to the Data Center site that bridges the historic community of Askeaton, Ireland and the new tech community.

The project centers around the question: How can we rethink the data center as not a closed fortress, but instead as a catalyst for tech innovation and community engagement?
Through the synthesis of three entities - the Data Center, the Tech Hub, and the Pub - Data Pub(lic) aims to bring a sense of place to the Data Center site that bridges the historic community of Askeaton and the new tech community.
Askeaton finds itself in a unique position between the rural and the historic on the one hand, and on the other hand, business and commerce, as well as tourism. Specifically, Askeaton is conveniently located on one of the major motorways, N69 that connects the town to nearby towns such as Limerick and Foynes. N69 also lies on a tourist route called the Shannon Estuary Way and more broadly the Wild Atlantic Way. It also connects to Shannon Airport which is a major hub for domestic and international travel.
A symbiotic system harnesses resource relationships: excess heat from data centers brews beer and warms buildings on site and the town of Askeaton; town and brewery wastewater cools servers and mitigates flooding; spent barley fuels data centers or feeds livestock; and collected urine sustainably fertilizes barley fields.
The project also considers the short-lived data centers. Data center leases typically last 25 years or less, after which it will be decommissioned. This proposal considers its afterlife of the data center as extension of labs for the tech hub, taking advantage of the large span and capacity of the data halls to place research and lab equipment. In addition, the proposal also plans for the adaptive reuse of housing units. The construction of the data centers at the beginning will require housing for the construction crew. These housing units will be reused to house the tech hub constituents once construction is complete.
The Bridge is the front entrance to the site directly connected to the highway. It acts as a gate framing the first view into the site with the data center making its prominent presence.
In contrast, The Town has an intimate experience, lined with town houses and small pubs, and pocket parks scattered in between. 

At the center of the development is a sunken football field that is designed to collect excess rain water and prevent flooding.
Across the football field from the pub, people are invited to visit the brewery housed in between the server halls of the data center.
The mix of different scales and experiences create a sense of place that is typically not associated with data centers.
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