Digital Conquest: Spatiality, Energy and Data Centres

by Fanny Lopez, Cécile Diguet

Overview

In an era of exponential digital growth, the physical impact of data flows is reshaping our cities and energy infrastructures.

This book uncovers the hidden world of data centres, from vast complexes in Virginia to digital suburbs in Paris and innovative facilities in Sweden. Through twenty insightful case studies from Europe and the US, it reveals how these often overlooked infrastructures influence urban change and energy consumption.

Written for readers interested in urban planning, sustainability and technology, this book sparks a vital dialogue on sustainable futures and provides crucial insights to help shape policies concerning digital and energy landscapes.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781529252156
Publisher:	Bristol University Press
Publication date:	08/26/2025
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	210
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x (d)

About the Author

Fanny Lopez is Full Professor of History of Architecture and Technology at the Paris Malaquais School of Architecture, Paris Sciences et Lettres University.

Cécile Diguet is Head of Studio Degel with 20 years’ experience in urban planning and local public policies.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part I: The Smart City at Half-Mast: Storing Data to Counter Crises

Chapter 1. Modeling degrowth: the utopia of the informational and communicational city

Chapter 2. The Internet infrastructure: from dispersion to centralization

Chapter 3. An infrastructure without architecture?

Chapter 4. Scales, typologies and siting strategies of data centres

Part II: A globalized territorial continuum

Chapter 5. In the dense city

Chapter 6. In urban outskirts, growing digital zones

Chapter 7. Isolated in rural zones

Chapter 8. Growth, acceleration and digital productivism

Part III: Energy disturbances and conflicts of use

Chapter 9. Rising electricity consumption and territorial destabilization

Chapter 10. Île-de-France in quest of a strategy

Chapter 11. Infrastructural redundancies and difficult pooling

Chapter 12. The Dutch and Swedish examples: integrated urban approaches

Part IV. Another digital: rethinking the network and its infrastructures

Chapter 13. Cyberattacks and political intrusions: states seeking independence

Chapter 14. The peer-to-peer solution: organizing a system distributed among equals

Chapter 15. Self-management and technological sovereignty: the decentralized digital infrastructures

Chapter 16. Resilience and inclusion: systems faced with disconnection

Chapter 17. The ecological footprint of alternative digital infrastructures

Part V.

Chapter 18. Alternative futures: three possible digital worlds

Conclusion