Exposed ducts and server rooms reveal the "heartbeat" of AI data centre in Beijing

A steel grid wrapped in LED netting cloaks the metal ductwork of Spark 716, an AI data centre and "computing power park" in the centre of Beijing, completed by local architecture practice LLLAB.

Located within Beijing's 798 Art District, the building was designed as an alternative to the traditionally closed-off typology of the data centre, instead allowing the infrastructure to co-exist with public and office facilities.

Fronted by a large public plaza, Spark 716 contains event, exhibition and workspaces, as well as areas that give glimpses into the data centre's server rooms, which Shanghai-based LLLAB described as its "breathing and heartbeat."

"In essence, the project embodies the convergence of architecture and artificial intelligence," studio founders Hanxiao Liu and Luis Ricardo told Dezeen.

"The design transforms a data infrastructure into an expressive, perceptible being, mediating the threshold between the human and the digital," the studio continued.

"This environment offered a unique opportunity to explore the intersection between the tangible and intangible – between the physical presence of architecture and the ephemeral realm of the digital world."

Creating a feature of the large ventilation ducts required to cool the server rooms, LLLAB kept them exposed to form the building's facade, where they are encased within a steel grid infilled with LED netting that illuminates at night.

A glazed ground floor sits beneath this steel grid, with the plaza leading into the building through a row of chunky concrete supports. Inside, spaces sit on either side of a central courtyard, off of which are dedicated entrances to the office areas.

"The grid organises the building's physical structure while also evoking the language of the virtual world — a digital matrix that represents information, order, and flow," Hanxiao and Luis said.

"The building appears solid and material during the day, yet as night falls, it transforms – its digital facade and dynamic lighting allow it to dematerialise and blend into the virtual landscape."

The grid of the centre's exterior is carried through the interiors, which featured gridded metal ceilings and tiled floors with a grid pattern.

The theatre, called the Computing Power Theatre, is wrapped by an angular black display wall and will serve as the base for China's annual JXQ AI Forum. The adjacent Enterprise Command Centre, meanwhile, provides a space to exhibit locally produced chips.

Previous projects by LLLAB include a series of woven bamboo shelters and pavilions on the banks of the Li River in Yangshuo and a hotel on the outskirts of Beijing that mimics a village of traditional brick and slate buildings.

The photography is by Arch-Exist Photography unless otherwise stated.

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