Skip to main content
Advanced Search
Search Terms
Content Type

Exact Matches
Tag Searches
Date Options
Updated after
Updated before
Created after
Created before

Search Results

128 total results found

Fieldguide to Data Center Ecologies

Chilled Infrastructures

How are data centers cooled, and how do these cooling systems affect their surrounding environment?

Cooling
Infrastructure
Environment
Impacts
Climate
Climate Justice
Efficiency
Water Scarcity
Water
Energy
Sustainability

Electrical and IT Connectivity

What does it take for Netflix to stream its videos 24/7 nonstop at instant speed? Through both electrical and IT Connectivity Infrastructure, we see that data centers are designed to be a resilient structure. These systems are designed to prevent failures, ...

History of Telecommunication

We explore the prevailing technologies that developed from late 1800's to the present: an always-on, connected world.

Morphologies

Landscapes

Cataloging Data Centers along I-10

Social Ecologies

Who bears the cost of the “digital cloud”?

Galena Park

Social Ecologies
Biotic Ecologies
Geological Ecologies
Territorial Ecologies

Components

Landscapes

Data Center Cooling Types

Chilled Infrastructures

Cooling
Infrastructure
Efficiency
Water
Energy

Impacts of Cooling

Chilled Infrastructures

Efficiency
Water
Cooling
Energy
Infrastructure
Climate
Impacts
Environment
Sustainability
Climate Justice

Case Studies

Chilled Infrastructures

Water
Water Scarcity
Climate Justice
Sustainability
Energy
Climate

Appendix

Chilled Infrastructures

History

History of Telecommunication

Innovations

History of Telecommunication

Case Studies

History of Telecommunication

Sources

History of Telecommunication

Pollution by Design - Memphis, TN

Social Ecologies

Depleting Water - Stanton Springs, GA

Social Ecologies

Powering the Cloud - Ashburn, VA

Social Ecologies

Appendix

Social Ecologies

Development Trends in Texas and Florida

Cataloging Data Centers along I-10

Urban Comparison

Cataloging Data Centers along I-10

Case Studies & Anomalous Data Centers

Cataloging Data Centers along I-10

the types of data storage

Morphologies

This chapter discusses the various methods of containing internet data

The Data Center Field Guide

Morphologies

Mapping Ashburn: infrastructural park

Morphologies

Featuring Greebles, Kitbashing, Suburbia, Sprawl, and the Archipelago

Tactics

Landscapes

Electrical System History

Electrical and IT Connectivity

The Current War 2017 Director: Alfonso Gomez-Rejon Workmen burying Edison DC power lines under the streets in New York City in 1882. This costly practice played to Edison's favor in public perceptions after several deaths were caused by overhead h...

Regional Overview: I-10 Corridor

Cataloging Data Centers along I-10

     Data centers are one of the most rapidly emerging building typologies in North America. These facilities store data servers and equipment necessary for supporting digital services and cloud computing, varying greatly in size, placement, and construction...

I-10 Corridor
Gulf Coast
U.S. Data Infrastructure
Cloud Computing Facilities
Regional Connectivity
Data Center Distribution
Scale & Size

Flows of Info

Landscapes

thasdfj;lkasjd. asldkjfis dfktlkjjfijht;lksossf sdfgskdf;goko0d  

Glossary

Chilled Infrastructures Appendix

acre-foot A unit of volume used to measure water; the amount of water needed to cover one acre of land (43,560 square feet) to a depth of one foot. One acre-foot is equivalent to about 1,233 m³. air cooling A data center cooling method that uses air conditi...

References

Chilled Infrastructures Appendix

https://blockclubchicago.org/2025/08/28/the-great-lakes-could-be-at-risk-due-to-data-centers-powering-ai-study-warns  https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/analysis/recycled-buildings https://www.apmresearchlab.org/10x/data-centers-resource? https://www.dat...

Air Cooling

Chilled Infrastructures Data Center Cooling Types

Air cooling is a data center cooling method that uses fans and air conditioning units (often within the computer room in the form of CRAHs) to circulate cool air between IT racks, expelling the hot air from computing equipment. Considered the most traditio...

Liquid Cooling

Chilled Infrastructures Data Center Cooling Types

Liquid cooling is a data center cooling method that uses liquid coolants (often water) to absorb heat from computing equipment. This method can appear in a variety of ways. One type of liquid cooling, illustrated above, is called evaporative cooling, and u...

Immersion Cooling

Chilled Infrastructures Data Center Cooling Types

Immersion cooling is a data center cooling method where IT equipment is directly submerged in a thermally conductive but electrically non-conductive fluid (known as dielectric fluid). Heat generated by the servers is absorbed by the fluid and then tran...

Visualizing Water Consumption: US Data Centers

Chilled Infrastructures Impacts of Cooling

In 2023 alone, US data centers consumed an estimated 17 billion gallons of water. That's 52,171 acre-feet of water, enough to cover a 10.2-mile-wide circle in a foot of water! Estimating the average cross-sectional area of a bayou channel at 2,400 square ...

Comparing Impacts by Cooling Type

Chilled Infrastructures Impacts of Cooling

Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) = Facility power (kWh)/IT equipment power (kWh) Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) = Water usage (L)/IT equipment power (kWh) Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) are ratios used to describe how e...

Data Centers in Hot, Dry Climates

Chilled Infrastructures Impacts of Cooling

In hot, dry climates, the high water demand from data centers can put immense pressure on the local water supply, exacerbating the effects of drought conditions. Because data centers mostly use potable water, this puts them in direct competition with local c...

Marseille, France

Chilled Infrastructures Case Studies

In Marseille, France, a European data center company called Interxion uses a form of liquid-based free cooling to decrease the energy required to cool its data centers. The facilities pipe water from 'La Galierie de la Mer,' a tunnel that runs from inland mi...

Mesa, Arizona

Chilled Infrastructures Case Studies

Image: Apple's data center in Mesa, Arizona In 2021, the City Council of Mesa, Arizona approved the construction of a new hyperscale data center that would require 1.25 million gallons of water per day, exacerbating the concerns of Mesa residents growing in...

Chicago, Illinois

Chilled Infrastructures Case Studies

Image: QTS is seeking to build a second data center at the property located at 2800 S. Ashland Ave. in McKinley Park. (By Lake Michigan) Chicago’s proximity to Lake Michigan and the Great Lakes basin makes it appear water-abundant, but new pressures from ...

Free Cooling

Chilled Infrastructures Data Center Cooling Types

Free cooling is a data center cooling method that takes advantage of local climate or geologic features to reduce reliance on mechanical refrigeration. Some data centers located in cool climates circulate ambient cool air to cool equipment, saving energy and w...

Elements

Landscapes Components

Landscape elements: SurfaceFlat landIrregular terrainModified topographyVolume CompactedElevatedCompactedFlattenDispersed Cooling units/Power generatorParkingFacadeCamouflageShellBoundarySpacial Lawn Water canalRoad VisualTree (row)Tree (singular)Physical Tr...

Eras of Innovation & Historical Context

History of Telecommunication History

DatesEraInventionsHistorical ContextImage1880's - 1910Telegraphs & TelephonesThe world's first commercial telephone exchange on January 28, 1878. The operator would use a cord to physically connect the caller's line to the desired party's line on the switchboa...

Graphic

History of Telecommunication History

Material of Data and Optimization of Cables

History of Telecommunication Innovations

1816 - Copper wires were first used underground to relay a telegraph; copper is good electric conductor 1881 - UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair) is the most common & inexpensive cable used in LANs (local area networks); used in ethernet & telephone lines. 1929...

Satellite & GPS

History of Telecommunication Innovations

This timeline of events is prefaced by the 1896 invention of the Radio. It used electromagnetic waves to transmit signals without wires. All wireless system we use — Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, satellite communication, GPS, and even your smartphone — is built on the p...