{"id":1014182,"date":"2026-06-08T23:52:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T23:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1014182\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T23:52:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T23:52:28","slug":"graeme-nicholls-plans-massive-ancient-greek-inspired-data-centre-in-fife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1014182\/","title":{"rendered":"Graeme Nicholls plans massive Ancient Greek-inspired data centre in Fife"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Glasgow-based practice looked to Classical architecture for its Cato project \u2013 a 280,000m2 hyperscale data centre near Auchtertool, Fife, designed for Intelligent Land Investments (ILI) Group.<\/p>\n

The \u00a35 billion development will feature six separate buildings, each with an identical footprint, to enable a phased construction approach.<\/p>\n

According to the studio, the design draws inspiration from the ancient Greek stoa, a covered, collonaded walkway where the Stoic philosophers gathered to exchange ideas.<\/p>\n

It also looked to the related classical tradition in which proportion, order and harmony were understood as expressions of a deeper philosophical worldview, as seen in the work of the Greek sculptor Polykleitos.<\/p>\n

\u2018These ideas have informed the proposal as a series of stepped forms, articulated in profiled anodised aluminium cladding, that give the buildings a robust and ordered architectural expression while bridging between human-scale and hyper-scale,\u2019 the practice said.<\/p>\n

Director Graeme Nicholls told the AJ that the company has been working with ILI on a net-zero housing project. The client liked its narrative-led approach to design and asked it to develop the data centre plan.<\/p>\n

\u2018The scale is quite extraordinary,\u2019 he said, \u2018and not like any of the other projects we have done, even the larger ones for 160-plus flats, etc, so our idea was to humanise the scale by using ancient Greek sculptural proportional systems that aligned with the Stoic philosophers\u2019 ideas on aesthetics \u2013 to give a form and modular unit (cubit) that makes that bridge between human-scale and hyper-scale.\u2019<\/p>\n

The 600MW Fife facility is part of a series of three ILI data centres planned across Scotland\u2019s central belt, and known as The Stoics. Graeme Nicholls Architects is on board for all the proposed developments.<\/p>\n

A planning application for Cato was validated by Fife Council in late May.<\/p>\n

But campaign group Action to Protect Rural Scotland said hyperscale data centres such as Cato posed a threat to energy affordability and security.<\/p>\n

Auchtertool Community Council chair Andrea Cail said in a statement issued through the campaign group that the proposal would be \u2018a giant blot on our rural landscape, right next to the village, with six buildings at 35m high\u2019.<\/p>\n

She added: \u2018This is an application with no end user identified, and the statement of intent shows the proposal could be changed and modified once an end user is found, which is really concerning.\u2019<\/p>\n

ILI Group chief executive Mark Wilson said the company would continue to engage with local communities about the development.<\/p>\n

\u2018Cato represents a significant opportunity for Fife, bringing substantial investment, supporting high-quality jobs and helping to establish the region as a key location for future digital infrastructure,\u2019 he added.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sketch of Cato data centre in Fife by Graeme Nicholls Architects<\/p>\n

Source: Graeme Nicholls Architects<\/p>\n

Architect\u2019s view\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It has been exciting to work on an emerging building typology of real significance.<\/p>\n

Data centres are often understood as purely technical buildings, but we saw Cato as an opportunity to give this new infrastructure a clear architectural identity and narrative.<\/p>\n

The proposals have been shaped by the setting, while drawing on the ordered, civic quality of the ancient stoa and the proportional ideas found in Polykleitos\u2019s Canon.<\/p>\n

Our aim was to respond to the exceptional scale of the brief without losing a sense of rhythm, order and human scale. The stepped forms, based on cubit units, collonaded stoa and robust materiality are intended to give the buildings a calm and resilient presence within the landscape, while connecting digital infrastructure, renewable energy and architectural form.<\/p>\n

Graeme Nicholls, director, Graeme Nicholls Architects<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Axonometric Cato data centre in Fife by Graeme Nicholls Architects<\/p>\n

Source: Graeme Nicholls Architects<\/p>\n

Client\u2019s view<\/strong><\/p>\n

We set Graeme Nicholls Architects a very difficult brief. First and foremost, ILI is a clean energy developer, and that has to come across in everything we do. Cato is only one of three hyperscale \u2018green\u2019 data centres that we have planned across Scotland.<\/p>\n

We asked that each of these projects be a product of the site-specific context, reach the highest standards of energy efficiency, and incorporate biodiversity measures. The harder instruction was that we wanted every drawing and image to tell that story, so that these important elements remain visible at the heart of the project.<\/p>\n

Graeme and his team have done an incredible job. We\u2019re continuing to work with them on net-zero housing elsewhere in Scotland, and can\u2019t wait to see how the other Stoic data centre projects develop.<\/p>\n

Greig Templeton, project manager, ILI\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Site plan of Cato data centre in Fife by Graeme Nicholls Architects<\/p>\n

Source: Graeme Nicholls Architects<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Glasgow-based practice looked to Classical architecture for its Cato project \u2013 a 280,000m2 hyperscale data centre near…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1014183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,4020,280799,96840,4022,77,13792,280800,16,15],"class_list":["post-1014182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-classicism","tag-data-centre","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-fife","tag-graeme-nicholls-architects","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116717182476923186","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1014182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1014182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1014183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1014182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1014182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1014182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}