Introduction
Campanha is a diverse neighbourhood in the North-East of Porto. Located directly next to the same-named train station this district has been and still is one of the underdeveloped neighbourhoods of the city.
Most of the buildings are from before 1945. Houses aren’t isolated, only heated by gas - and not within heat network, but with bottles from a delivery service. We passed by plenty of abandoned…
Introduction
Campanha is a diverse neighbourhood in the North-East of Porto. Located directly next to the same-named train station this district has been and still is one of the underdeveloped neighbourhoods of the city.
Most of the buildings are from before 1945. Houses aren’t isolated, only heated by gas - and not within heat network, but with bottles from a delivery service. We passed by plenty of abandoned houses. Boarded up windows, and entrances full of trash.
Yet the municipality of Porto published a masterplan with a strategic vision for this neighbourhood.
A new street should improve the lacking connectivity of the plot, and 10.000 sqm of space of for new economy can be added. What is new economy? New economy is on the cutting edge of internet and technology, replacing manufacturing businesses slowly with internet-based high-tech industry. Can this be the change for Campanha?
Conclusion
Low-income neighbourhood has a vibrant diy-character that is already slowly changing.
Campanha can use the ambition of the municipality to find it’s own way within the new economy.
A datacenter can be the catalyst, a game changer on every scale level.
This facility is basically the physical body of the internet, a part within a network of hundreds of storages of data that’s been provided online. Cities with a data center have an advantage as technology-based industries are most likely to settle down next to this MEGA_STORAGES to benefit from physical and non-physical network.
Also, data centers can have a circular aspect: Their waste heat can be re-used for warming facilities nearby, the one resource that is needed is water. Today’s data centers mostly have blind faces and are closed buildings, that are not contributing nor giving something back anything spatial to their environment as they primary have a data-storing function. As designers preoccupied with the city, we want to improve this typology.
Pushing the play button:
1 Integration as a public space
Almost all infrastructure of the data center is underground, sitting inside the hill and forming a teras within the neighbourhood. This decision was made by two simple reasons:
First, the design is so subtle that it is not taking any space, but actually adding public space to the neighbourhood. The school gets an extended teras facing the valley with space for playground and recreation. Also, infrastructure can be endless extended inside the hill if needed. Second, the data center needs an enormous amount of water for cooling the servers, and the heat exchange. The existing stream at the plot which is directly located along the topography can support the heat exchange.
2 – Better accessibility of the plot
Everything is starting with the necessities, and so the infrastructure.
A new shortcut will be added inside the plot. The twist: to integrate it with the data center, it is partly underground. Cars can access from the south-side of the plot, trucks can take the loop inside the hub of the data-center, unload the data and exit to the north of campanha near the highway.
3 – Existing infrastructure is getting reused
The old parking lot of the caravan rental service becomes the facility of maintaining the data mobiles. That’s a service that already exists in the micro-economy of the area and can be taken over by residents. They can get schooled for the new technology, and are able to raise their income.
On the plot of the former vacant supermarket the building gets replaced by a service center for the data trucks, including office space for design and research.
On the other end of the underground mini-highway the vacant plot gets restored. Soon the hardware for the data center is going to be produced “locally” in the neighbourhood.
4 – An island for the new economy
An island for the new economy: In the middle of the plot three buildings are going to be added. Two towers and a locally-owned bioengineering center. The clue: the two little streams which were already inside the plot are renaturated and the buildings are following the water. Connecting work and recreation.
The towers are directly plugged-in with the data center and can store their information inside the servers. IT-related businesses and start-ups have an advantage settling down here.
A part of the plots center going to be given back to the residents for their own diy-projects. SKREI (an office we visited during the excursion), can grow crops in cooperation with the residents. This natural material can be used to isolate and built new houses. But also it becomes a part and a recreational landscape.
5 – A new terrace for the the school
extending the public space of the building and connecting it to the neighbourhood
6 – Making the business circular
The data center is sharing its waste energy with the neighbourhood. Data centers are producing an enormous amount of heat when servers are running. With a water pump and natural water (from the streams) the servers can be cooled and the heat be transported to the household.
It’s summer and no heating is needed? Then the energy can be used for aqua farming in the glass house or for the swimming pool
Result
The data center can first function as a play button, an extended infrastructure that attracts new businesses to the area. But in the end, the approach is more focused on a social and ecological circular background. Resources are getting used and reused, residents and newcomers can work together. The middle of the plot is giving back to the neighbourhood and it become an open multifunctional terrace for the area.