Data Centres Transforming City Regions?!

TCR Talks – Summer Semester 26

By Lena Unger

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

Data centres represent the material backbone of the digital transformation: without computing capacity, network connectivity, energy, and land, there is no cloud, no AI, and no digital future. Data centre development and operation exemplify that digitalisation is physical and tied to spatial, environmental, and political consequences.

For urban development and spatial planning, these computing structures represent a new and increasingly significant critical infrastructure, particularly in metropolitan regions where they tend to cluster. These spatial dynamics of data centre expansion pose substantial challenges for cities and regions as the so-called server farms require extensive electricity supply, consume land, and compete with other uses for scarce resources; yet their local economic benefits are often limited or unclear. This dichotomy gives rise to conflicts over site selection, energy provision, waste-heat utilisation, public acceptance, and the extent to which value creation is retained locally.

Drawing on current examples from Germany and international comparisons, the talk examines governance pathways of data centres as digital infrastructure and explores if and how digital ambitions can be reconciled with regional interests, local planning authorities and sustainable development.

Short bio:

Lena Unger is a research assistant and PhD candidate at the European Planning Cultures Department of the Faculty of Spatial Planning at the Technical University of Dortmund. With a background in spatial planning, her research interests and experiences are centred around participation, co-production and data centres as digital infrastructures and planning.