{"id":14263,"date":"2020-11-03T14:03:30","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T12:03:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/?p=14263"},"modified":"2022-12-05T18:35:36","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T16:35:36","slug":"sweco-designed-an-eye-catching-facade-and-large-scale-technical-implementation-for-ficolos-data-centre-in-vantaa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/insight\/press-releases\/sweco-designed-an-eye-catching-facade-and-large-scale-technical-implementation-for-ficolos-data-centre-in-vantaa\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweco designed an eye-catching facade and large-scale technical implementation for Ficolo\u2019s data centre in Vantaa"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t
\n\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t

\"Ficolon\"<\/h2>\n

Sweco designed an eye-catching facade and large-scale technical implementation for Ficolo\u2019s data centre in Vantaa<\/h1>\n

The amount of data is growing quickly, which increases the need for larger, more energy-efficient and technically more complex data centres.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The large, windowless halls hide a great deal of different technology inside them. As a rule, data centres don\u2019t do much for the view. However,\u00a0\u201cThe Air\u201d centre of Ficolo data centre company<\/a>\u00a0is an eye-catching structure as its facade, made of aluminium plates, moves with the wind.\u201cFicolo challenged us to think how the facade of the company\u2019s new data centre could be utilised in a way that would make it more symbolic while also adding to the company\u2019s brand image,\u201d says Sweco\u2019s principal designer for Ficolo\u2019s project,\u00a0Tapani Virkkala<\/strong>, an architect specialised in data centre design.Sweco has been involved in several data centre projects. In Ficolo\u2019s project, Sweco\u2019s team was in charge of architectural and structural design as well as the HVAC, electricity and building automation design.<\/p>\n

Designing a data centre requires special competence, as the buildings are often technical units of massive scale.<\/p>\n

\u201cTechnology is at the centre of the entire design process,\u201d states Sweco\u2019s architect\u00a0Stefan Vara<\/strong>, who was in charge of Ficolo\u2019s design process with Virkkala.<\/p>\n

The amount of data is growing quickly, which also increases the need for new data centres with even higher capacity. The technology is also advancing, which requires the designers to continuously update their competence, according to Virkkala and Vara.<\/p>\n

Something old and something new<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ficolo comprises both old and new structural elements, as it was built into an existing industrial hall, which was expanded further. Sweco\u2019s\u00a0Iikka Ylih\u00e4rsil\u00e4<\/strong>, who worked as the Ficolo project\u2019s structural engineer, says that bringing modern technology into old structures always sets its own challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t always have all the initial data available from old buildings or it may not be up to date. Surprises are a given when structures are not where they have been expected to be,\u201d Ylih\u00e4rsil\u00e4 says.<\/p>\n

According to him, the structural engineering process was also challenged by the construction materials used and the different requirements for the premises.<\/p>\n

\u201cA new, steel-structure hall was built inside the old building, like a box inside another box. In turn, the expansion part, with an impressive facade made of aluminium plates, has a concrete frame. In addition to the various technology facilities required by the data centre, the building also houses an office section,\u201d Ylih\u00e4rsil\u00e4 says.<\/p>\n

Free-cooling and environmentally friendly data centre<\/strong><\/p>\n

The CO2 emissions of data centres are now globally on the same level with the emissions of air traffic. As the capacity continues to grow, it is significant how the electricity needed by these centres is generated.<\/p>\n

Ficolo\u2019s Vantaa centre is an environmentally friendly data centre that has received the best possible\u00a0\u201cDark Green\u201d rating<\/a>\u00a0granted by a climate research institute. All electricity used by the centre is generated with fully renewable forms of energy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe heat loss generated by cooling the servers is fed into the district heating network of Vantaan Energia energy company,\u201d says Sweco\u2019s\u00a0Jussi Alilehto<\/strong>, who was in charge of the centre\u2019s building technology engineering. The same green energy is thereby used once in the data centre and then recycled to other locations through the heating network.<\/p>\n

The cooling system also includes free cooling, which is based on utilising the cool outdoor air. It needs very little energy and can be used almost all year round. According to Alilehto, future requirements have also been taken into account in the design solutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to the flexible solutions, we can use a cooling method that best suits the current situation and we will not be bound to just one alternative in the future, either.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/section>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The amount of data is growing quickly, which increases the need for larger, more energy-efficient and technically more complex data centres.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":14744,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"Design & technical implementation Ficolo\u2019s data centre,Sweco","_seopress_titles_desc":"The amount of data is growing quickly, which increases the need for larger, more energy-efficient and technically more complex data centres. Help from Sweco.","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[96,139],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases","category-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14263"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38536,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14263\/revisions\/38536"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sweco.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}