Angaben zur Professur

Lehrstuhl 

Professur M. Topalovic

Typ 

Professur für Architektur und Territorialplanung

Standort 

ONA

Webseite 

www.topalovic.arch.ethz.ch

Assistierende 

Martin Kohlberger, Yiqiu Liu, Jakob Walter, Jan Westerheide

Kontakt E-Mail 

aot@arch.ethz.ch

Angaben zur Entwurfsklasse

Typ 

Entwurf V-IX

Thema 

THE PRODUCTION OF CLOUD—Investigating Swiss Data Infrastructures

Beschreibung
des Entwurfs-programmes 

Your TikTok scroll, a robotaxi’s u-turn, a question to ChatGPT—every byte is somewhere in the cloud, gulps megawatts, and silently redraws the territory. In the public conversation we are presented with cloud-like images on a bright blue background. Artificial Intelligence—the latest use of cloud computing—has been successful in sapping our attention. It is currently adopted by more than half of the world's population. The production of this great cloud metaphor relies on material processes—a planetary metabolism of mineral extraction, water depletion, e-waste, and often exploitative labour practices in remote regions. Every click, search, or generated image drives the global AI race for better models, infrastructural expansion, and greater control over resources and data sources—so much so that AI is becoming an obstacle to energy transition. Along with phenomena such as digital pollution and digital detox, we now also debate data sovereignty—the ability of countries, and thus institutions and individuals within their borders, to ensure local control over the data they produce, a form of power increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few tech giants. To understand AI’s spatial impacts, we will start the journey in Switzerland—a country where “Data is the new gold”, and where AI growth capitalises on political stability, good infrastructure and low taxes. New data centres are being built in tax havens, along infrastructure corridors, near tech headquarters, and Zurich and Geneva’s financial hubs. Though the first Swiss data centres were built in the 1960s and ‘70s by public institutions including the Swiss Military (EMD) and ETH, these structures were rarely given a distinct architectural expression. The iconic Swisscom data centre in Zurich, designed by Theo Hotz and built in 1979 as a PTT telecommunications hub, has since been repurposed several times in line with technological shifts. Its former amenities—including a canteen, tennis courts, and a childcare facility—are no longer in use, as daily operations now require fewer than ten staff across the entire site. The history of the data centre is thus also a history of automation and dehumanisation. As an architectural typology, data centres are often black boxes: hermetic, windowless structures, sometimes in remote locations, even Alpine bunkers, maintaining uninterrupted power supply and optimal humidity and temperature for server functions. The architectural task is also to articulate security barriers with regard to public access to facilities and information. These hidden interiors are encased by defensive ensembles of fences, gates and security cameras—amplified security aesthetics arguably functioning as a business reassurance to their private clients. In urban contexts, data centre locations are determined based on connectivity to the electrical grid and a fibre-optic backbone. A recent study claims that Swiss data centres are projected to consume 15 percent of national electricity by 2030. In the last five years, the Canton of Zurich registered more than 100 requests for new data centres. In contrast to their immense energy consumption, they offer very few jobs or other public benefits and attract little investment into the communes. Although the Canton Zurich requires all newly built data centres to supply their waste heat to district heating networks, many of them are already served by other sources, or their required expansion in order to store and transmit this energy, would be too costly. This semester, we would like to invite you to explore the environmental and social impact of the Swiss data cloud. How can we study securitized spaces of minimal human presence? What kind of buildings and infrastructures underpin the cloud? What are cloud’s externalities and how can they be minimised? What future expansion of cloud architectures is expected in Switzerland? Who controls the use of data? We want to speculate about a design of future data centres that are not merely black boxes, but that can serve as public assets. How can data centres be designed to contribute better to a just transition and to urban life? Throughout the semester, you will work with different visual media and across scales: from understanding the spatial logic of information flows, to analysing urban impact of data centres, to visualising the cloud infrastructures of Switzerland. Using narrative cartographies, you will also map the cloud governance and explore the architecture of a data centre through physical models. Each student team will be assigned a specific data centre in Switzerland as a study site. The teams will conduct on-site fieldwork, and expert interviews. You will create a series of analytical drawings, diagrams, maps, and a video reportage. As your final project, you will build an interpretative architectural model of a data centre, expressing your design hypothesis. How can we make the invisible visible? How can we design a better data centre?

Thematische und methodische Schwerpunkte 

, Staedtebau, Handwerk, Visualisierungen, Territorial Design

Lernziele 

POWER TO THE PEOPLE is a studio series at Architecture of Territory dedicated to improving the social and environmental outcomes of 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 techniques, writing, videography, and online publishing. Experts and guests will guide us on that journey. Students work in groups of two to three. The semester is structured in three phases: 1) mapping and fieldwork; 2) urban analysis and video reportage; and 3) architectural analysis and model. Core Course: MY CLOUD Running parallel to the design studio, the core course MY CLOUD is a lecture series that aims to puncture the gaseous metaphor of "the cloud." The series features four distinguished guest speakers—Flora Mary Bartlett, Marina Otero Verzier, Alfredo Thiermann, and Yiqiu Liu—from the fields of urban geography, digital economy, sociology, environmental history, and speculative design. Together, we will explore the cloud’s physical footprint, examine who owns and governs it, historicize the infrastructures that enabled its rise, and reimagine the futures it might create. CREDITS The semester offers a total of 17 credit points: the Design Studio 14 KP and the Integrated Discipline (Planning) 3 KP. The core course My CLOUD offers additional 2 KP.

LV-Nr. des Entwurfs 

052-1147-25

Unterrichts-sprache 

English

Arbeitsweise 

Nur Gruppenarbeit

Daten Zwischenkritiken 

Datum Schlusskritik 

Einführungs-veranstaltung 

16.09.2025, 9.30 am, ONA G35

Zusätzliche Kosten 

CHF 50 (Schätzung, ohne allfällige Kosten für Modellbau und Seminarwoche)

Verfügbare Plätze 

42

Plakat des Entwurfs-programmes 

Plakat ansehen (PDF Datei)