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Data centre by Microsoft

Microsoft building first data centres with cross-laminated timber

Architecture studio Gensler has designed a pair of data centres with a hybrid CLT structure in northern Virgina, USA, for technology brand Microsoft.

While typically built from concrete and steel, Microsoft has adopted a hybrid cross-laminated timber (CLT), steel and concrete construction model for the two centres โ€“ the company's first to be built using wood.

Designed by Gensler and structural engineer Thornton Tomasetti, the two-storey centres are currently under construction in Virgina. They are being built with a steel primary structure sat on top of a concrete base with CLT used to construct the upper floors.

Timber data centre by Microsoft
Microsoft is building two hybrid timber data centres in Virginia. Photo courtesy of Microsoft

Renders of the centres were unveiled by the company in October last year and reveal rectilinear structures that will be complete with cut-out openings, expansive glazing and wood-clad exteriors.

According to Microsoft, which has more than 300 data centres globally, the timber designs will "reduce the embodied carbon footprint of two new data centres by 35 percent compared to conventional steel construction, and 65 percent compared to typical precast concrete".

"We have multiple levers to pull to meet our 2030 goals, as we know that no single action or project will close the gap between our goals and current trends," the company told Dezeen. "From building the first datacentres made with wood, to investment in low-carbon building materials, we're working hard โ€“ alongside our suppliers โ€“ to meet sustainability goals."

Data centre by Microsoft
The data centres were designed to reduce the company's carbon emissions. Photo courtesy of Microsoft

The decarbonisation of its facilities is one of the company's more recent initiatives to reduce its carbon emissions since seeing a 30.9 per cent rise in indirect emissions driven by the expansion of its data centres.

The company also previously announced its goals to become carbon negative, water positive, zero waste and protect more land than it uses by 2030, and by 2050 hopes to have removed from the atmosphere the equivalent of the company's total carbon emissions since its establishment in 1975.

Microsoft hopes that this latest initiative will serve as a precedent for the use of innovative construction approaches elsewhere.

"Working together with partners, governments and communities is essential to address climate change," the company said.

"Our goal is by trialling materials such as CLT in our datacentres, we will encourage innovation and be a catalyst for inspiring adoption within the datacentre industry and beyond."

Elsewhere, hybrid timber models were also adopted for a parking garage in Los Angeles, and a conceptual design for convertible mass-timber lab buildings in cities.

The images are courtesy of Gensler unless otherwise stated.

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Data centre by Microsoft