The Australian National University's new facility plays host to the National Computing Infrastructure (NCI) and their next generation peta-scale supercomputer. The building accommodates the computing needs of the NCI over the next 10 – 15 years with co-location of other ANU computing capability.

The facility provides :

• a national high-end computational facility for data-intensive science that provides internationally competitive research teams (in a range of disciplines) with the resources and support needed to compete at the highest levels internationally;
• a contemporary data centre and associated infrastructure, consistent with world’s best practice, to house current and future high-end computational systems, and also a major node of the national research data storage network;
• a new data centre facility that is capable of continuous upgrade through to 2015 but is ideally capable of accommodating two (alternating) peak facilities and a major national data storage node, and which is capable of being upgraded for at least 15 years.

The facility contains a 1,000m² of technical white-space, configured to accommodate the next 2 generations of HPC and 1,000m² of office accommodation, allowing the co-location of NCI staff and elements of the ANU’s IT Infrastructure, in environmentally sustainable offices.

ANU NATIONAL COMPUTATIONAL INFRASTRUCTURE FACILITY WINS ACT ‘Public Architecture Award’

Jury’s citation:

“The Architects have responded to a relatively prosaic public building brief housing of the National Computational Infrastructure - with a surprisingly elegant and inspired architectural solution. The obvious temptation is to house the monolith computer, replete with its elaborate industrial cooling system, in a vast warehouse structure. 

But the winners have instead responded with an architecturally elegant building that is superbly responsive to its site and function. It incorporates symbolism and playful artistry that highlight aspects of the machinery that are integral to the core function, while creating a warm, inviting corporate environment for staff and visitors.”