The Data Center Design Series

2020 THE DATA CENTER DESIGN SERIES with UW, UA and UPenn | Education Initiative Sponsored by Google

This year-long course offered a sequence of design studios and seminars clustered around the common theme of data center design during the spring and fall semesters/quarters of 2020 with the goal of exploring sustainable solutions to the rapid proliferation of cloud computing. The joint study took place amongst three different institutions: University of Washington (UW), University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), and University of Arizona (UA). Each institution and set of instructors will examine a different aspect of data center design and contribute to establishing a body of knowledge on the topic.

Julie Kriegh was lead UW instructor with Chris Lee and Jan Whittington for the fall 2020 design studio and seminar. Students were challenged to design a Living Building Data Center.

See also:

• Metropolis Magazine PODCAST: The Carbon Footprint of the Metaverse.

• Metropolis Magazine ARTICLE: An online world that doesn’t destroy the real one.

• Fast Company Magazine INTERVIEW: The internet is killing the environment. These students came up with a brilliant design fix.  To reduce the carbon footprint of the internet, students partner with Google and Microsoft to rethink the world’s data centers.

• UW RESEARCH PORTAL: Launch a More Sustainable Data Center: sponsored by Google ($50,000) with the UW College of Built Environments (Kriegh, Lee, Whittington, Awad, Aviv, & Ida, 2021)