Uploaded on 2015-05-26 by robertmarch

[1]: https://edxuploads.s3.amazonaws.com/14326537191898315.jpg Last year I lived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to work on the new king Abdullah Financial District. The new financial district is comprised of 59 new towers with a total gross area of 1.6 million sqm. To service the technological demands on the development two data centers would be built on the site which would occupy the largest parcel of the masterplan. The photo I have uploaded shows one of these two data centers. As technology advances and the digital tools we use daily become smaller and smaller, the amount of data storage held remotely has to increase. It's important for society to consider the social costs of these buildings as they become more necessary and widespread. When considering the urban environment these buildings do not offering anything positive back to the public realm. They only take up space, block views, generate heat etc.