Facebook To Build Innovative Data Center Concept In Lulea, Sweden

Borrowing bits and pieces of technology from the automobile industry, Facebook hopes to construct a radical new second building in the city of Luleå, Sweden. This new structure proposes to be the hallmark of new-age production, using modular and lean construction principles. Facebook calls it Rapid Deployment Data Center Concept (RDDC).

The data center's in-house strategic engineering and development team sought the help of lean construction experts to work with them on the project. Going back to the automobile industry theory, the construction is built upon the idea of how a car is assembled from its chassis upwards. Similarly, RDDC involves assembling 12-feet wide by 40-feet long steel frames and loading them with cable trays, power busways, pre-installed lighting and containment panels and then shipping them. The server racks will later replace the components within the frame.

Engineering Manager Marco Magarelli confirmed that the second aspect being used in the construction is the flat-pack approach. For this, the walls are fit into standard and modules that are easy to ship. Simple tweaks like opting for preassembled unitized containment panels that are not bigger than eight-feet wide, optimize the loading of trailers and doesn't require any additional wide-load permits.

The purpose behind the RDDC concept is to use pre-made modular sections that can be assembled on-site. This reduces the duration and local impact of the construction work.

VIA: Facebook, OpenCompute