As part of the 19th International Architecture Biennale, Grimshaw is showcasing an installation: Data Centres and the City: From Problem to Solution on the Path to Sustainable Urbanism. The exhibit, which includes a large-scale model linked to a six-minute animation, explores how data centres and our digital futures should not be ‘hidden’ systems but embedded as civic infrastructure, socially and environmentally integrated into the typology of our cities.
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Exhibited 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 becomes 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, powerful question: What if data infrastructure served not only technology demands, but our communities, places, and futures?
The installation’s synchronised narrative visualises the embedded flows of energy, water, information, and interaction, positioning the data centre as a regenerative force in urban life, critical systems thinking that connects economic vitality, environmental health, and social systems for net positive impact. While provocative and speculative in tone, the installation is informed by a live Grimshaw-designed project currently in development with global industrial property and digital infrastructure group, Goodman.
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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.
With a pledged commitment to design and deliver socially and environmentally regenerative buildings and assets by 2030, the Data Centres and the City installation furthers Grimshaw’s sustainability leadership in the industry. It also reflects the practice’s consideration of the civic significance and environmental responsibility of infrastructure: how it belongs, not just performs.
“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.”
Michael Janeke, Managing Partner, Grimshaw
“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.”
Andrew Whalley, Chairman, Grimshaw
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Data Centres and the City: From Problem to Solution on the Path to Sustainable Urbanism is now open to the public at the Venice Biennale 2025 as part of the Arsenale exhibition (Entry 187). For more information, visit www.datacentrecommunities.com →
The installation was designed and constructed by Grimshaw in collaboration with Goodman and Arup.
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CGI imagery courtesy of Grimshaw.
Event photography by Peter Bennetts
22.05.2025
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