A Canticle For Leibowitz, Walter M Miller Jr ,1959.

The Monks of the Leibowitz order have been preserving written scientific memorabillia from the 20th century for the past 600 years in the hopes that these ‘illuminated manuscripts will help future generations reclaim forgotten science. 17 year old Brother Francis has spent 30 years illuminating an old wasching machine circuit schematic as a gift to the Pope of New-Rome…

Collective human history of the past 25 years is currently stored within ten clinical mega-sheds across the globe, how can we make our history meaningful again?

Currently, the flickering architectures of data centres are more than just computational infrastructures; they are becoming the defining cultural constructions of our age. If the dream commission for an architect was once the church, then what could become of our data centres if the same reverence for design and ornamentation was applied now…

Your cube may become a twisted typology combing digital storage in the cloud, with hoarding memories and bits of tat above our heads in our attics. Scales could vary from the home office shrine of the 90’s: what would a personal data storage system in the home look like now, how could these memories be displayed? To the data centre itself, whereby the architectural typology of the data centre becomes a superfluous design that represents the vast amount of precious digital memories and treasures within. Do we leave our data there and reimagine the data centre more like a church or grand archive? Or do we begin to store data most precious to us at home in more personal digital shrines?

Brief Written by Christopher J Delahunt /// The Bakerloos Design Studio