Failed Architecture18 Touko 2018

#01 Data Space: The Architecture and Impact of Data Centres

Instagram photos, public transport information, streamed music and Netflix movies seem to appear out of thin air on your phone, don’t they? Well, getting them onto that screen isn’t as light and easy as it feels. There is, in fact, an immense and decidedly heavy infrastructure powering the cloud. More and more architecture is being designed and built to house server space and internet connection hubs. Since these buildings typically use as much energy as a medium-sized city, our digital lives have a direct environmental toll. Minimising this footprint is one of the data centre industry’s main issues.

This episode was triggered by our encounter with the first data centre to be fully embraced as Architecture. Designed by Benthem Crouwel Architects, the AM4 data tower in Amsterdam only recently appeared on the city’s skyline. Being taller than most buildings in the city, and cutting an impressively slick, windowless appearance, the data skyscraper is hard to miss. Does this design treatment for data architecture signal a tipping point of data centres becoming more visible and acceptable elements of cities? For the podcast, we got inside the heavily secured AM4 data tower to see, hear and feel the internet, and talked to several people about data space.

– Michiel Eielts is managing director at Equinix, the data centre company that commissioned the building.
– Joost Vos is architect and partner at Benthem Crouwel Architects, who designed the AM4 data tower.
– Ingrid Burrington is an artist and a journalist for a.o. The Atlantic. Her work deals with invisible infrastructures such as the internet.
– Alexander Taylor is a social anthropologist at the University of Cambridge who looks at the social, political and infrastructural dimensions of data security. For Failed Architecture, Alexander has also written the article Failover Architectures: the Infrastructural Excess of the Data Centre Industry.

This episode is directed by Mark Minkjan / the Failed Architecture team.

Tämä jakso on lisätty Podme-palveluun avoimen RSS-syötteen kautta eikä se ole Podmen omaa tuotantoa. Siksi jakso saattaa sisältää mainontaa.

Jaksot(60)

Covid-19, Ongoing Construction, Istanbul w/ Eda + Charlie

In the first Breezeblock episode, FA editors Eda Hisarlıoğlu and Charlie Clemoes talk about the spatial effects of both Covid-19 and ongoing construction in Istanbul.

9 Huhti 202014min

#11 Architects Unionise!

We tend to think of architects as professionals rather than workers. Architects design, create, delegate, follow a special calling, but they’re not often seen as “working for a living”, and they’re ce...

1 Loka 20191h 10min

#10 Mecca to the Max: The Holy City Transformed

Mecca is the holiest city in the Islamic religion and the birthplace of the prophet Mohamed. Located just off Saudi Arabia’s western coast, all Muslims are required to visit at least once in their lif...

14 Kesä 20191h 2min

#09 Listen to the City, It's Trying to Tell You Something

Contemporary urban discourse relies overwhelmingly on visual representation. While it may be more effective both in conveying the actual appearance of a particular urban space and in communicating the...

12 Maalis 201950min

#08 Speer in Qatar or: How Architects Stopped Caring and Learned to Love the Client

Albert Speer is one of the most infamous architects in history. During his time working for the Nazi Party he was responsible for designing the Reich Chancellery and the Zeppelinfeld Stadium in which ...

20 Joulu 20181h 4min

#07 Incompiuto: Italy's Most Prominent Architectural Style

Italy’s landscape is dotted with unfinished structures. For a myriad of reasons, the construction of these buildings and pieces of infrastructure stopped half-way, leaving the often concrete and often...

30 Marras 201849min

#06 Architects in Calais: On Border Systems and Self-built Cities

The area around Calais, a town in northern France, has for many years been a major transit point for refugees on their way to the United Kingdom. During the recent peak in the number of refugees, the ...

23 Syys 201858min

#05 London Undone: Gaika and Ash Sarkar Discuss the City's Past, Present and Future

In this episode, we use the work of London-based rapper Gaika to explore the subject of London, talking to both Gaika and Ash Sarkar, a senior editor at Novara Media who has previously collaborated wi...

12 Heinä 20181h 7min