SAB aesthetic cladding in cradle-to-cradle data centre

The first CO2-negative data centre in the world was opened on the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven (NL) this summer. KPN, major telecom company in the Netherlands and the owner of the data centre, had the building designed entirely according to cradle-to-cradle principles. Not only was the possibility of reducing CO2 emissions looked out, but endeavours were also made to make all parts of the building recyclable at the end of their lifespan. It was partly for this reason that the decision was taken to use SAB steel profiled cladding.

For cradle-to-cradle (C2C), the recyclability of the materials and parts used in the building is of paramount importance at the end of their lifespan, as is the recyclability of the building itself. For example the height of the ceilings in the data centre was over-dimensioned to make another user function possible at the end of its lifespan.

Disassembly and reuse were also key issues when choosing the building materials. That was why a lot of steel was used in the building, as this material can be easily disassembled and recycled. At the same time, this metal complements the high-tech look of Brainport Eindhoven.

The steel façade in two matt and shiny colours and the use of expressive colour accents makes the building look both chic and restrained. To get this effect, special SAB cladding was used: double-pointed SAB-Diamond® 40/440 cladding and gunwale SAB-PD 22/500 (rabat) cladding. The colours used were Colorcoat Prisma® Orion for the shiny metallic colour and Anthracite to get the matt look. The façade profiles were mounted on SAB B110/600 liner trays in a grey-white Colorcoat Interiorcoating RAL 9002. The assembly work was all performed by Derckx BV from Weert (NL). The entire project from design to tendering and realisation was performed in just 6 months.

The building achieves negative CO2 emissions with one hundred percent sustainable wind energy from the Netherlands and a connection to the heat ring of High Tech Campus in Eindhoven. The heat ring facilitates the exchange of heat and cold through various buildings on the campus, with the possibility of thermal energy storage in the ground. The heat that is released during data storage is recycled and used to heat other buildings. All these design choices resulted in a CO2-negative data centre. The building received Tier IV certification from the Uptime Institute, which is quite an achievement.