ETFE is chosen for the final design. It was decided to include the structure inside the building and that it would move the ETFE strips from the inside, pushing air from the servers.
The foundation plan follows the same grid in all 5 directions as the plant. The plant is divided into platforms modulated by 1.2m supported by 4 steel beams that end in the foundation slabs. The structure rests on a continuous foundation slab.
The plant is divided into 118 server zones on different
perforated metal platforms. The platforms are arranged every 20cm in height, adapting to the topography and articulating the space between them, thus creating pathways.
That’s how a human scale is achieved. The platforms adapt to the external shape of the building, leaving a space between them. The reason why they are modulated in 1.2m is due to the normal dimensions of a 0.6 x 1.2 x 2.4m server.
The structure receives the minimum size of the building so that from there the pistons expand it. It is a structure triangulated geodesically by steel fixed tubes.
This project was published in the 2019 BCU Year Book at School of Design of Birmingham City University.
The drawing shows the weather of the last 5 years in the site. Therefore, it is a pentagon divided by 5 parts, one for each year.
It considers parameters as tempertature, humidity, rainy days, milimeters/square meter, sun hours each month, wind speed and direction and shadows study.
The drawing was made with Grasshopper taking data from several resources, obtaining a diagram with every climate data in one drawing and easily to read.
The following drawing was awarded with RIBA 2019 Drawing Award and Greenbook Highly Commended Award.
Given the climate analysis, some parameters were changed into 3D to do some sections of the diagram, showing even more information and posible ways to design depending on the weather.
Each radius of the floor plan represents one month and each month reflects its data, so there are 30 radio sections with two months included in each.
At the same time, the data can also be measured in section, starting to produce an architectural result.
The idea is to create a dynamic building depending on the climate by taking advantage of the hot air from the servers. Also, in each section the 60 data of each month are applied to obtain 60 possible sections in each radio section.
As a result, 60 possible buildings are obtained, one for each climatic month. This gives 1800 sections (60 sections by 30 radius). Two possibilities were proposed to achieve this, being option B the one finally chosen.
David Guillén Barrero