PREMIO MAGGIA — SUPERSPATIAL

SUPERSPATIAL

IS A MULTIDISCIPLINARY OFFICE, BASED IN MILAN, THAT USES ARCHITECTURE AS A TOOL TO TRANSFORM CONTEXTS AND TO CHALLENGE THE TRADITIONAL WAY OF THINKING.

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PREMIO MAGGIA

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CLIENT
LOCATION
YEAR

PREMIO FEDERICO MAGGIA
BIELLA, ITALY
2020

Today, 2% of the world's energy is used to store data. Data centers are increasingly numerous and occupy large spaces across territories. In 2022, the amount of stored data will be double the current amount. For this reason, integrating these facilities into the urban fabric and ensuring their energy sustainability is a challenge. Disused industrial spaces can be transformed into digital infrastructures. Spaces awaiting new purposes, such as the Lanificio di Lessona, can once again become productive thanks to data. Hundreds of "racks" occupy part of the building. The upper floors are used for human activities. The heat generated by the computers, instead of being wasted, is used to heat water and produce steam. The project thus becomes an experiment: a way to exchange energy, transform matter and spaces that would otherwise be lost.
I remember when these places were factories. Wool was produced here, some of the best in the world. Perfect machines, connected to the river, transforming the energy of water and workers into fabric. Then these spaces were gradually abandoned, and the noise of the machines gave way to silence.
Today it feels strange to be here. Once again in a cloud of steam. Once again in a perfect machine. Spaces emptied of looms have been filled by other tools, objects that can autonomously convert the river's energy into labor. Rows of servers collect and store data. An automated, autonomous factory. A large computer, at the scale of a building, cooled by the river’s water. As the water heats up, it becomes steam. White clouds fill the upper floors where I find myself. Latent heat, instead of being wasted, is transformed into wellness and health, into a thermal space. A calidarium, a social space for meetings and dialogue, open to everyone. A human space. The building, also a latent space, once again becomes a factory—a place of state transitions, of work understood as the physical transformation of elements, of production, connection, exchange, commerce, socializing, and wellness.