Must data centers be so ugly?

A church, traditionally, is the house of God. The chapel of Torre Girona, however, is a house of superhuman intelligence. In this quiet corner of Barcelona sits one of Europe’s most powerful computers, one whose 5,000-odd Nvidia GPUs have been turned toward tasks far beyond an unassisted human mind. It has simulated the cardiovascular system; used data to predict where deeply-buried fluids might lurk; and, most profoundly, detected the gravitational waves set in motion by the collision of two black holes. Once the chapel’s neo-Romanesque nave would have been filled with chanting; now, it hums. And sometimes it is filled with visitors. It is the marriage of the two constructs, chapel and data center, and the unusual power of the apparatus within the stone walls, that give this site its appe