Data Centers Transforming City Regions

TCR Talks – Summer Semester 26

By Cristiana Mattioli

Date: Tuesday, 14 July 2026
Time: 15:30–17:00
Place: Chair and Institute for Urban Design, SG301, Wüllnerstr. 5b, 52062 Aachen

Data centres form the physical backbone of digital transformation. Without computing capacity, connectivity, energy, and land, there is no cloud computing, artificial intelligence, or digital future. Their development highlights that digitalization is not purely virtual but depends on material infrastructures with spatial, environmental, and political implications.

For urban development and spatial planning, data centres are becoming a critical infrastructure, particularly in metropolitan regions where they often cluster. Their expansion creates challenges because they require large amounts of electricity and land while competing with other uses of scarce resources. At the same time, their local economic benefits are often uncertain. These tensions raise questions about site selection, energy supply, waste-heat use, public acceptance, and local value creation.

Using examples from Italy and European cases, the talk explores the challenges and opportunities related to Data Centers regional development and discusses governance approaches for better integrating them into local territories and communities.

Short bio:

Cristiana Mattioliis a researcher in Urban Planning and Design and coordinator of the project “ProdAction – The New Territories of Data Center”, Department of Architecture and Urban Studies, Polietcnico di Milano