FROM ENERGY-HUNGRY TO ENERGY-SMART. DESIGNING SUSTAINABLE AND RESILIENT DATA CENTERS AS NEW INFRASTRUCTURES OF THE DIGITAL AGE

In an era increasingly defined by digital infrastructures, data centers have become the invisible backbone of contemporary life, supporting communication, creativity, and global economies. Yet their environmental impact is staggering: energy consumption, water use, and carbon emissions are rising in parallel with our digital dependence. This paper investigates how design thinking and sustainable design practices can reimagine data centers as resilient ecosystems rather than resource-hungry machines. The study begins by tracing the roots of data center design—rooted in the industrial logic of efficiency, centralization, and control. Historically, data centers have been conceived as neutral, purely technical spaces. However, as their ecological footprint becomes increasingly visible, there is an urgent need to redefine their design logic, integrating environmental and social dimensions. As Fry (2009) argues, design must move from sustaining existing systems to regenerating futures, and this transition is crucial when addressing the material and energetic infrastructures of the digital age. Through the lens of design research (Manzini, 2015; Fry, 2009), the paper proposes a methodological shift toward “energy-smart design”, a framework that combines spatial design, materials innovation, and lifecycle carbon accounting. By integrating tools such as CO₂ footprinting, circular material flows, and AI-driven energy optimization, data centers can evolve into living laboratories of sustainability. Case studies from Europe and the Mediterranean region illustrate how architectural, environmental, and digital design can converge to create adaptive infrastructures, structures capable of responding dynamically to local climate conditions and energy availability. Within the routes of innovation, the paper discusses how cross-disciplinary design practices—bridging architecture, interaction design, and systems thinking, can lead to new paradigms of infrastructural resilience. Rather than merely hosting data, nextgeneration data centers can act as distributed energy nodes, reusing waste heat, harvesting renewable energy, and embedding sustainable aesthetics into technological landscapes. Ultimately, the paper argues that the future of design lies in reimagining the digital infrastructures that sustain our daily lives. By designing data centers not as abstract machines but as ecological and cultural artifacts, we can reconnect technological progress with planetary responsibility, transforming the “roots” of the digital era into new “routes” toward sustainability, regeneration, and resilience.