Available to purchase at.Data centres have ever-growing server demands, requiring innovative cooling solutions.
This is before the requirement for a building, let alone a building of a number of stories, has been established.Although, there is a good chance some sort of building will be required, the speed with which the teams grasp onto the physical and the detail is astounding.
In tandem with the physicalisation of a building is the push to attach a capital cost to this now crystalised construction.What has disappeared and often is lost forever is the purpose and value of the project.If we could live with not-knowing, if we can weather uncertainty then we can find better outcomes..
The horrific experiences of two people in the 20. th.Century formed the foundation of an abiding philosophy.
Victor Frankl, who survived a concentration camp in WW2 and went on to write “Man’s search for meaning” and General Stockdale, who was captured in Vietnam and survived brutal imprisonment, both concluded that living with the uncertainty in those times was key to survival.
The artificiality of grasping for certainty was a flawed survival strategy.One insight was that 3 structural typologies represent most of the Government estate.
These typologies were called Platforms because they embody the common features of multiple assets: structural grids, beams, columns, connectors, slabs etc.Behind these commonalities lies a common kit of components, a much smaller set of components vs bespoke, traditional construction.. A limited number of components streamlines compliance.
The analysis showed that in fact 70% of the public sector estate could be delivered by one structural platform: a mid-span c.8m structural solution.As platforms ‘lock down’ the set of component specifications that sit behind design, this reduces the set of technical variables and requirements.