Nothing Nowhere, Fláje

The work explores the possibilities of synergy of cultural and technological potentials of the Fláje waterworks. It seeks an approach to enter the mountain landscape of the Ore Mountains with a data center building (DC), which would enable the development of the site while preserving current values, including a unique dam, and at the same time be able to ensure the restoration of the natural integrity of the site. The data center as an unimaginable burden on our environment and at the same time an inevitable structure of human existence.

“A land full of horrible forests or disgusting swamps.” Köhler, 1978 The project deals with the verification of real computing capacities (both in terms of area and energy requirements of DCs) and their extreme idealization in relation to the location of the border Ore Mountains. It thus defends the importance of pretense towards the environment in the current unabated growth of energy demands related to the exponential increase in requirements for the functioning of digital services. The operating demands of the building are thus manifested in the work by examining relationships on both a large and small scale. The design consists of two parts. The existing dam body – specific cavities with modifications for the needs of exhibiting Czech-German work and the new one – a data center in a common envelope – artificial rock. Visual transition of the "natural" exterior to man-made interior represents the depiction of different properties and meanings given by different needs of nature and people itself. The vertically conceived hall structure of the data center, designed for the possibility of staging on individual floors, adjoins the dam body as another plate, at the same angle. The “sandwich” approach achieves the use of a minimum floor area, while maximizing the vertical area. At the same time, the inclination of the mass and the related structural solution allow for the capture and transfer of temporary water pressures in the event of dam damage. The envelope is created by scanning rock massifs within a 20 km radius and randomizing their shape and color characteristics. Functionally and visually, it thus heals the disturbed area and creates a romantic construct of a long-vanished dark forest, the mythical Mirihwid, which at one time spread over this area. New nature.