Projects

Data4 Data Center Campus – Milan

Location

Settimo Milanese (MI), Italy

Client

Data4 Italy s.r.l.

Year

2013-on going

Area

84.000 sqm

Since 2013, Generale Prefabbricati has been commissioned to study, design, and construct one of the first operational Data Centers in Italy. The project began solely with performance specifications provided by the client, Data4—an international operator headquartered in France with a presence across several European countries, including Italy, France, Spain, Luxembourg, Germany, and Poland.

The Data Center challenge addressed with a single partner.

Throughout this long-standing collaboration, Generale Prefabbricati’s involvement has extended beyond the mere production of the precast structure. It encompasses all civil engineering services, from foundations to internal and external finishing details. This has allowed the company to take on the role of General Contractor, delivering a turnkey product.

The project is located in the former Italtel industrial area, strategically positioned near an Enel/Terna power substation and connected to one of the most significant fiber-optic data transmission lines in Italy. Since 2013, at the DATA4 Milan campus alone, we have completed and delivered 9 Data Center buildings totaling 60MW and 84,000.00 square meters of floor space, an office building (Data4’s Italian headquarters), and a high-voltage substation dedicated exclusively to the campus. An additional 6 Data Centers are currently under construction and development, representing a further 80MW and 135,000.00 square meters of area. This is a sector where lead times are increasingly tight, moving in tandem with the development of advanced engineering applied to continuously evolving plant systems.

What we did

General Contractor

Engineering & Construction

EPC

Business Areas

Data Center

Energy

Technologies

Industrialized Construction

Cutting-edge precast solutions for the new generation of Data Centers.

The rigorous requirements for operational security and business continuity for a Tier 4 building led us to develop a highly specialized structural technique, distinct from most Data Centers in Italy:

The inclusion of a 1.80-meter-high vide sanitaire (crawl space) to allow for maintenance and utility access in conditions of complete safety.
Large-span open-space data halls (approximately 22m), featuring high load-bearing capacities and fire resistance, maximizing the usable space for rack storage.
Backup generators housed within the building.
A seismic-resistant precast structure achieved without the need for cast-in-place cores or pours.

The success of these technical solutions led to Generale Prefabbricati’s involvement in the Marcoussis Campus (Paris), where 14 Data Centers were built, totaling 65MW and 115,000.00 square meters of covered area.

High-performance precast elements with reduced CO2 emissions.

All these efforts are part of a broader journey toward innovative environmental solutions. Generale Prefabbricati is actively researching new low-impact mixtures for the production of both precast and cast-in-place elements. This research is conducted by a dedicated internal technical team in collaboration with two major cement and additive suppliers, Italcementi (Heidelberg Cement Group) and BASF. This partnership has already resulted in the implementation of Low Carbon cement for foundations and the production of Low Carbon Hollow-Core Slabs, achieving a CO2 reduction of approximately 18%.

These results are made possible by the high performance of Generale Prefabbricati products—such as large-span prestressed elements and Spiroll hollow-core slabs—and the extensive expertise developed by our technical departments in this sector.

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