HYPERHALL: Data Center Hall Design Assistant
A parametric Grasshopper tool that tells you, in real time, whether a site can support the data center you need to build.
You give it a piece of land and a target IT load. It sizes the building program, packs the data halls onto the buildable land, builds the 3D massing, and grades the site pass/fail โ live, as you move the sliders.
What it does
HYPERHALL answers one question before you commit to a site: can this land actually support the load you're trying to build? It does it by reconciling two things:
- How much building do I need? Your MW target รท rack density gives a rack count. Racks รท what fits in one hall gives the number of halls needed.
- How much building can this land hold? The site minus its setbacks gives the buildable envelope. The tool tiles halls into it (with circulation gaps) to find the site's capacity.
It places the smaller of the two โ you build what you need, never more than fits โ then runs two feasibility checks. Both pass โ FEASIBLE.
Inputs (sliders)
Slider | What it controls |
site_L, site_W | Site dimensions |
setback | Perimeter setback (carves the buildable envelope) |
hall_L, hall_W, hall_H | Single data hall dimensions |
gap | Circulation space between halls |
white_ratio | Usable rack-space fraction of a hall (rest is aisles, cooling, electrical) |
rack_area | Floor area per rack, including aisle share |
IT_load_MW | Target IT load |
rack_kW | Power per rack (rack density) |
PUE | Power Usage Effectiveness (cooling + electrical overhead) |
max_coverage | Maximum allowed building coverage ratio |
Outputs
- 3D massing โ the placed data halls, on a grid inside the site boundary
- Dashboard โ racks needed, halls needed vs. placed, site capacity, facility power, GFA, coverage
- FEASIBLE flag โ YES only if both checks pass
The two feasibility checks
- Program fits site โ a space question: did every hall I need physically fit on the buildable land? (halls placed โฅ halls needed)
- Coverage OK โ a planning question: is the resulting building coverage under my limit? (coverage โค max_coverage)
A site can pass one and fail the other. FEASIBLE = both YES.
How to use it
- Open the Grasshopper file. Set the 13 sliders to your scenario.
- Read the dashboard panel โ watch the two gates, Program fits site and Coverage OK.
- To see the massing in Rhino, turn on the component's preview (it tracks the sliders live). To capture a still, wire the
hallsoutput to a Geometry param and Bake once. - Move any slider and watch the program, massing, and feasibility update instantly.
Worked example
A 300 ร 200 site, 10 setback, 60 ร 30 halls, targeting 45 MW at 15 kW/rack and PUE 1.3: the tool needs 9 halls, the site holds 16, so it places 9 โ 27% coverage โ FEASIBLE: YES. Push the target to 50 MW and coverage climbs to 51% against a 50% cap โ FEASIBLE: NO โ even though the halls still physically fit. That's the tool catching a planning limit, not a space limit.
Limitations (v1)
- Coverage counts data hall footprint only. A real site also needs substations, generator yards, cooling, parking, and laydown โ easily another 30โ50% of footprint โ so effective coverage would be higher.
- Halls pack from one corner (minimum buildout); no layout optimization or phasing yet.
- Single-story massing; no vertical stacking.
gH File:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m1BxxOHA9wpYIB8yhqDvUpWbYyLhyUaE/view?usp=sharing
Video:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NR2yTd2tAsjFYWr7q3btKps5s0oclIUj/view?usp=drive_link