Server Manifesto

Server farms are to the digital world what castles used to be: the seat of power. If data is the greatest collective treasure of a digital society, basic material for business and politics: Why are the places where it is stored still so invisible? Together with students from the Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main, Niklas Maak shows what the future of the most important new building typology of the twenty-first century might look likeand what new collective places a city needs in the age of digitalization. This is a historic moment. Data has become the most valuable commodity in the world. We cant leave it to a handful of tech giants. We must conceive of it as a public good and a critical public infrastructure, alongside roads, electricity, water, and clean air. To that end, we need what Niklas Maak calls a Centre Pompidou for the digital age. Francesca Bria

Niklas Maak, Jahrgang 1972, studierte in Hamburg und Paris Kunstgeschichte, Philosophie und Architektur und lebt in Berlin. Seit 2001 ist er Redakteur für Kunst und Architektur im Feuilleton der Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung, außerdem Gastprofessor für Architekturgeschichte in Frankfurt am Main und in Harvard. 2022 erhielt er den Johann-Heinrich-Merck-Preis für literarische Kritik und Essay.