The Swiss approach is striking: data here is seen as “the new gold,” a new strategic asset enabling unprecedented concentration of big tech infrastructures and facilities, second only to Ireland. The Zurich metropolitan region hosts one of Europe’s major data centre cluster and is undergoing rapid expansion, with new AI data farms in Dielsdorf, Volketswil, and beyond. A recent study projects that by 2030, Swiss data centres could consume up to 15 percent of the nation’s electricity. Data centres are often located in tax-advantaged jurisdictions, along infrastructure corridors, near corporate headquarters, and close to the financial hubs, while providing few jobs and limited public benefits. Their architecture is often reduced to a design of the envelope and its tectonic pseudo-qualities, while accepting, ironically, a building’s role as off-limits infrastructure—whose public role and environmental responsibility are effectively reduced to zero. The studio asks: is such an uncritical approach to data centre design something we should support?

At the same time, manifold cultural phenomena and political struggles accompany our digital acceleration: from anxieties over AI apocalypse to phone-free zones, and form personal data tracking to digital sovereignty. All of them ask for socially and spatially intelligent responses from architects.

The studio invites you to collaboratively develop a territorial design project on Zurich’s data landscape. We will begin by debating the following questions: What if a data centre were a sealed technical object, but an urban public actor—contributing energy, connectivity, information and space to its surroundings? Could a data centre function more like a library, a greenhouse, or a playground? Should citizen data—such as biometric identity and health records—be stored on Microsoft servers, as they currently are, or within socially owned digital infrastructures? And what spatial forms might those infrastructures take? Finally, how might personal choices—such as online-offline rhythms and selective data storage—contribute to healthier data ecologies?

The studio is structured in three phases: 1) comparative data center clusters mapping and urban analysis; 2) fieldwork and video reportage; and 3) a common map of the future of Zurich’s Cloud. During the first three weeks, you will work in groups researching international data centre clusters, from North Virginia to Beijing and Zurich. You will map the planetary geographies of data computing and the digital divide, comparing different regions to each other. In the second phase, your core task is to investigate—through fieldwork, interviews, video essays and design analysis—a data centre currently under construction in the Zurich region. Working across scales, all studio participants will collaboratively visualise Zurich’’ data center cluster, infrastructure using diverse cartographic methods, QGIS and modelmaking. You will explore future scenarios through spatial and policy prototypes.
The studio will result in a common territorial project for Zurich’s data centre landscape, that fosters a socially and environmentally just transition.

POWER TO THE PEOPLE

is a studio series at Architecture of Territory dedicated to improving the social and environmental outcomes of technological and sustainability transitions. The studio is affiliated with the Swiss Network for International Studies (SNIS) through the research grant “The Production of Cloud.”

PROCESS AND RESULTS

The work consists of investigative journeys and intensive studio sessions. Architecture of Territory values intellectual curiosity, commitment, and team spirit. We are looking for avid travellers and team workers, motivated to make strong and independent contributions. Our approach enables students to explore a range of methods pertaining to territory, including ethnographic fieldwork, drawing styles, and mapping techniques such as QGIS. Your results will be published as an online reportage on our website using journalistic writing and videography to explain your work. Experts and guests will guide us on that journey. Students work in groups of two to three.

EXCURSION: MUNICH

For the second Tuesday of the semester, we will travel to Munich to visit the Leibniz Supercomputing Centre and the exhibition City in the Cloud—Data on the Ground at the Architekturmuseum der TUM. Travel expenses of about 60 CHF will have to be covered by you.

CREDITS

The semester offers a total of 17 credit points: the Design Studio 14 KP and the Integrated Discipline (Planning) 3 KP.

LOCATION
Art. 1 Principles
1. A framework shall be established for the responsible placement
of commercial data centres in Zurich‘s Cluster.
2. The placement of commercial data centres shall serve the public
interest and take account of territorial, environmental and social
concerns.
Art. 2 No-Build Zones
1. Areas unsuitable for construction shall be designated as
No-Build Zones.
2. Natural hazard zones, farmland, forests and water bodies
shall in particular be excluded from development.
Art. 3 Evaluation of suitable areas
1. Suitable areas are evaluated in accordance with technical
requirements, environmental effects and social performance.
2. Each individual site is ranked according to these criteria.
3. In this way, the future territorial potential of the Canton of Zurich
shall be identified.
Art. 4 Urban-scale impact
1. The legal planning process shall be arranged in such a way that
data centre development contributes positively to the urban and
territorial environment.
2. Strategic design instruments may be used for this purpose.

ENERGY DEMAND
Art. 5 Limitation
1. The energy demand of commercial data centres must not exceed
20 per cent of Switzerland’s total energy demand.
2. The competent authorities shall take the measures required to
ensure compliance with this limit.
Art. 6 Renewable energy
1. Intermunicipal data centres shall be powered by renewable
energy generated within the municipalities concerned.

DATA INFRASTRUCTURES
Art. 7 Zoning
1. AI Data centre construction is strictly limited to prenegotiated
industrial zones
Art. 8 Frugal Scale
1. All new AI data centers must not exceed 10 MW
Art. 9 Efficiency Parametres
1. All newly built AI data centers have to be within 500 meters of
the railway corridor and within a 1 km radius of a substation

WASTE HEAT
Art. 10 Heat as Territorial Resource
1. Waste heat from data centres, industry, waste incineration
and other infrastructures shall be treated as a shared territorial
resource shaping settlement, local activities and everyday life.
Art. 11 Local Heat Networks
1. Waste heat shall support integrated local heat networks
connected to housing, agriculture, industry, public programmes
and storage infrastructures.
Art. 12 Multi-Scalar Systems
1. Waste heat distribution systems shall connect household,
neighbourhood, regional and metropolitan scales through shared
heat networks and storage systems.
Art. 13 Seasonal Resilience
1. Seasonal storage, thermal exchange and diversified producers
and users shall strengthen territorial resilience across
interconnected heat networks.

BIG TECH
Art. 17 Decoupling
1 As the expansion of data centres in the Cluster is not directly
linked to the expansion of Big Tech. Data centre development shall
be planned independently of the growth strategies of individual
large technology corporations.
Art. 18 Regional Network
1. The Region Zurich Data Centre Cluster shall be organised on a
polycentric basis.
2. Excessive concentration of tech ecosystem (technological power
and digital infrastructure) in the urban core shall be reduced.
3. Workforce and digital infrastructure shall be distributed to
secondary municipalities by:
a. Means of the public transportation system
b. The capacity of the place in terms of population
c. The proximity to the academy ecosystem
d. The amount of tax income that the municipalities would
benefit from
e. The amount of tax costs that the tech ecosystem would pay in
that place
f. Respecting and leveraging existing local regulatory
frameworks and legal benefits
Art. 19 Diversification of the Ecosystem
1. The Cluster shall promote the coexistence of large technology
firms, smaller technology enterprises and public-interest services.
2. The Cluster shall respect the different functions of the above
described entities in equal manner and therefore seen as a
multifunctional centre.
3. Diversification is achieved when:
a. Ownership is not limited to one owner.
b. Maintenance is subdivided into the different owners
accordingly.
c. Different usage and user can occur at the same.
Art. 20 Public Space
1. Public space within technological clusters shall remain genuinely
public.
2. It must not in substance be transformed into a privately
controlled public space.
3. It must avoid excessive enclosure, barriers, surveillance and
commodification.
Art. 21 Mobility
1. Multifunctional centers shall be developed on the basis of
controlled car traffic.
2. Pedestrian access and public transport shall have priority.
3. A low-car ecology shall be promoted.
Art. 22 Ground Floors for Civic Use
1. The ground floor of every technology-related structure shall serve
the public.
2. These spaces shall remain open and dedicated to civic uses.
3. They may in particular include open-source workshops, libraries
and collaborative spaces.
Art. 23 Fiscal Benefits
1. Fiscal revenues generated by Big Tech shall be used in part to
support smaller and structurally weaker economies.
2. They shall in particular contribute to the improvement of
multifunctional centres.

INTER-COMMUNAL DIGITAL SOVEREIGNTY
AND ECOLOGIES OF DATA
Art. 29 Dual Infrastructure Principle
1. Two forms of data storage shall be promoted:
a. communal data centres for municipalities, citizens and local
enterprises;
b. decentralised storage systems for residents integrated into
new buildings.
2. Both forms shall be developed in a complementary manner.
Art. 30 Control Over Data
1. Every person has the right to decide where their data is stored.
2. Every person has the right to know how their data is processed,
what it is used for and who has access to it.
Art. 31 Long-Term Independence
1. A decentralised digital storage network shall be built.
2. It shall strengthen digital independence and secure essential
digital services in the long term.
Art. 32 Education
1. Schools and municipalities shall promote education in the use of
data.
2. Such education shall be accessible to all.
Art. 33 Financing
1. Communal and decentralised digital infrastructures shall be
financed through taxes.
2. The installation of decentralised storage systems in new buildings
may be encouraged through tax incentives.