Enter Apollo North - CLE

Enter Apollo North - Architectural Association - Intermediate 7

On a clear day, looking north from Compass Point, you can see almost all the antenna that belong to GCHQ’s listening station near Bude in Cornwall. From here, the things we can see – stark-white round structures quietly perched on the horizon – are a reminder of what is unseen. More than 30,000 kilometres of fibreoptic cable land on shore there, arranged in a cluster dubbed Apollo North. It is estimated that this beach is the through-point for 98% of the traffic on the Internet. 

The fact that these breathtaking cliffs, rolling hills and sandy beaches are a site of digital infrastructure, and therefore also a site of a major global security operation, underscores the counterintuitive logic of our seamless experience of digital technology. Fast and invisible communications through ‘cloud’ technologies require buildings that are enormous, heavy and slow: satellites, receivers, cables, server stations, administrative buildings, holding pens, aeroplanes, hangars, communication towers, landing strips, car parks and warehouses. Boundless digital experience is always located in the real world. Physical space is the beating heart behind the clusters of pixels in front of our eyes.

Voice - Marko Milovanovic & Fearghus Raftery