As architects from all nations descend on , Italy for the 19th International Architecture Biennale, there is much to see and experience and this includes an installation from global architecture practice .
Grimshaw’s installation, Data Centres and the City: From Problem to Solution on the Path to Sustainable Urbanism, features a large-scale model and an animation. It explores how digital infrastructure could shift from invisible systems to civic assets that support social and environmental life.
Located in the Arsenale (Entry 187 of the international programme), the installation proposes a radical evolution of the data centre, responding to the Biennale’s theme: Intelligens. Natural. Artificial. Collective.
As artificial intelligence, cloud computing and digital infrastructures expand at scale, the question of how and where data lives become a matter of urgent spatial consequence. These invisible systems demand energy, land, water and connectivity. Their presence reshapes how cities function, what they consume, and whom they serve. This installation responds to this moment by asking a clear and powerful question: what if data infrastructure served not only technology demands, but our communities, places and futures?
“Planning our cities today is complex – a layering of physical and digital lives which need to be enabled today and for tomorrow’s regenerative, resource-light future. Infrastructure is at the heart of this, and data centres are an advanced technological infrastructure that we must be prepared to recognise as a holistic provider of the structural and aesthetic of our future communities,” comments Andrew Whalley, Chairman, Grimshaw.
The installation was developed in collaboration with Goodman and supported technically by Arup (Entry 188), whose expertise in sustainable infrastructure and environmental systems helped shape the ambition and viability of the proposal. This triangulation between design, development and systems intelligence reflects the kind of interdependence today’s urban futures demand.
Michael Janeke, Managing Partner, Grimshaw adds: “What makes this exhibition meaningful is not just the architecture, but the way people and ideas have come together to create it. It is a vision made real through partnership with Goodman, with Arup and with our global team. It reminds us that great architecture doesn’t just shape cities – it emerges from shared intention. This is the kind of work that shows what is possible when design leads from systems, not silos.”
This exciting installation comes from Grimshaw’s commitment to a sustainable future where connection in all forms, whether technological, social or design, meet. It also reflects the practice’s consideration of the civic significance and environmental responsibility of infrastructure – how it belongs, not just performs.
It’s been a must-see at the Venice Architecture Biennale, broadening horizons and showing the possibilities that forward thinking and great design can bring.
More information about Data Centres and the City: From Problem to Solution
Grimshaw
Photography
Peter Bennetts
CGI Imagery courtesy of Grimshaw
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