Multistorey data centre in Frankfurt reflecting high sustainability standards

Accelerating digitalisation and connectivity across every area of society creates an increasing need for computing power. The new data centre in Frankfurt, FR8, helps to provide the infrastructure the city needs for businesses, services and people to interconnect, innovate and succeed.

Our client, one of the world’s largest data centre providers, contracted Royal HaskoningDHV Data Centres team to act as lead consultant for the project. We developed the design from concept to detailed stage and oversaw quality assurance during construction through to commissioning.

Solution balances needs of the client with sensitivity to impact for the local population “As a long-standing trusted partner, we were given details of the plot in Frankfurt and asked to maximise capacity. We worked within the company’s own design standards, and also needed to meet the requirements of the municipal authority’s data centre zoning strategy,” explains Leendert Boon, Expert Mission Critical Facilities at Royal HaskoningDHV.

We paid close attention to enhancing the visual appeal of the building. This is becoming an ever more critical aspect for the public and the authorities.

The external façade of the data centre blends into the cityscape with greenery from top to bottom. The planting was arranged in successive layers to ensure the desired impact was achieved as soon as the data centre was completed rather than needing to wait for the greenery to grow up from ground level. The data centre is powered with 100% renewable energy and features highly efficient operations in line with our client’s sustainability goals.