North West Hyperscale Data Centre CGI

This case study is published under StratumCGI's anonymisation policy because the clients do not wish to be publicly named. Client name, scheme name, exact location, and precise IT load capacity have been altered or removed. The visualisation reflects the typology of the underlying brief.

Project Gallery

North West Hyperscale Data Centre CGI (SCGI-002) hero view showing the mission-critical data hall, attached office block, plant yard with chillers, and perimeter security fence under UK overcast morning light, by StratumCGI — **Hero Campus View**Data hall, attached office, and plant yard in one composition under UK overcast light.

Aerial context CGI of the North West Hyperscale Data Centre showing the data hall volume, chiller yard, backup generator line, on-site substation, and rooftop plant enclosures, by StratumCGI — **Aerial Context**Drone-tilt view placing the campus in its North West landscape and infrastructure corridor.

Plant yard CGI showing the external chiller array on raised concrete plinth, louvred acoustic screens, backup diesel generator housings, and fuel storage compound, by StratumCGI — **Chiller and Generator Plant Yard**External chiller array, louvred acoustic screens, and backup generator line.

Security entrance CGI showing the gatehouse, anti-ram bollards, palisade perimeter fence, CCTV pole, and pedestrian approach with hi-vis security staff, by StratumCGI — **Security Entrance**Gatehouse, anti-ram bollards, palisade fence, and CCTV poles at human scale.

Masterplan CGI top-down aerial of the North West Hyperscale Data Centre showing the data hall footprint, plant yard, on-site substation compound, parking, and perimeter landscape bunds, by StratumCGI — **Site Masterplan**Top-down orthographic aerial of the hall, plant yard, substation compound, and landscape bunds.

Facade detail CGI showing the anthracite RAL 7016 precast panels, mid-grey RAL 7035 aluminium cladding bands, and vertical MEP louvre strips of the data hall, by StratumCGI — **Facade Material Detail**Precast panels, aluminium cladding bands, and vertical MEP louvre strips on the hall.

Brief Us on a Hyperscale Data Centre Scheme

Project Overview

North West Hyperscale Data Centre (SCGI-002) is an industrial architectural visualisation by StratumCGI for a Tier III+ hyperscale data centre campus in North West England. Also known in the market as a cloud hall, a hyperscale campus, a mission-critical facility, a colocation facility, or a computing load centre, this typology is commissioned by hyperscale cloud operators, colocation providers, and data centre developers to house compute and storage workloads at regional scale. The scheme typology covers single-hall facilities in the 18,000 to 32,000 m² GIA range with 30 to 60 MW IT load capacity, N+1 redundancy, and Tier III+ operational resilience.

Who commissions this building type

UK hyperscale data centres are developed and occupied by specialist data centre developers, landlords, and operators including Ark Data Centres, Virtus, Kao Data, Pulsant, Global Switch, Telehouse, Yondr, Vantage, EdgeConneX, Stack Infrastructure, Iron Mountain, and Colt. Hyperscale demand on those platforms is driven by cloud and technology occupiers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Oracle Cloud, Meta, IBM Cloud, Apple, Salesforce, and Alibaba Cloud, along with institutional enterprise workloads from the financial services, media, and telecoms sectors. Build-to-suit and powered shell are the dominant delivery routes at this scale.

Why the North West

The UK North West data centre market sits around the Manchester, Warrington, and Liverpool corridor, with strong grid capacity, established fibre routes along the M6 and M62 corridors, and a labour catchment of specialist MEP and mission-critical operations staff. The region has emerged as the UK's second data centre market after Slough and the West London cluster, driven by hyperscale build-to-suit demand, grid headroom, and lower land values than London (techUK UK Data Centre Report, CBRE European Data Centre Market Q4 2024, Knight Frank Data Centre Report).

Typology	Tier III+ hyperscale data centre
GIA range (typology)	18,000 to 32,000 m² per hall
IT load (typology)	30 to 60 MW per campus
White space (typical)	~60% of GIA
PUE target	1.2 to 1.35 (industry benchmark)
Redundancy	N+1 electrical and mechanical
Cooling typology	External chiller array, air-side economiser
Backup power	Diesel generator line with 48 to 72 hour fuel
On-site substation	33 or 132 kV incomer, transformer compound
Perimeter security	2.4 m palisade, CCTV, anti-ram bollards
Region	UK North West (M6 / M62 corridor)
Reference	SCGI-002 (anonymised)

Estimated CGI Pricing for a Hyperscale Data Centre Scheme

Hyperscale data centre CGI in the UK typically costs between £1,400 and £3,200 per final still frame for a Tier III+ mission-critical facility with one data hall, a combined gross internal area between 18,000 and 32,000 square metres, and 30 to 60 MW IT load capacity, delivered as a six-frame still set. Underlying costs for 3D modelling, material and lighting setup, post-production, AVR Type 3 verified views, drone survey, and consultation animation are quoted separately and listed in the table below. The ranges shown are StratumCGI's published guide figures for any UK hyperscale data centre scheme in this typology class, not the commercial terms paid on the SCGI-002 anonymised commission.

These are typology ranges, not the price paid on this specific commission. Commercial terms for SCGI-002 are withheld under our anonymisation policy. Data centre ranges sit above the big-box warehouse baseline because the MEP, plant yard, substation compound, and security perimeter all require extra modelling depth.

Hyperscale Data Centre CGI · Line Items

Final still frame, planning or marketing ready	£1,400 to £3,200 per frame
3D base modelling from the architects' CAD package	£4,500 to £9,500 per scheme
MEP plant yard, chiller, and substation compound modelling	£2,800 to £6,500 per scheme
Material, lighting, and landscape setup	£1,600 to £3,400 per scheme
Post-production and grade pass	£220 to £480 per frame
AVR Type 3 verified view uplift, Landscape Institute TGN 06/19	£600 to £1,200 per view
Drone survey planning and viewpoint capture	£900 to £2,400 per site visit
Consultation flythrough animation, 60 to 90 seconds	£7,500 to £16,500 per animation
Revision rounds beyond the first two	£260 to £540 per frame per round
Planning portal formatting and delivery	Included with planning-spec packages

Typical six-frame package, all in

£16,500 to £34,000

Range driven by MEP modelling depth, substation compound complexity, number of AVR Type 3 verified views, and whether a consultation animation is included.

Cluster, hall count, and IT load capacity drive where a scheme lands in the range. A single-hall Tier III+ facility sits at the lower end, a multi-hall campus with a dedicated substation compound and a large chiller array sits at the upper end. For a live hyperscale scheme we quote against the actual view list, the actual MEP drawings, and the actual timeline.

Request a Written Hyperscale CGI Quote

Inside the Project: A Conversation with the Director

Industrial architectural visualisation of a hyperscale data centre CGI masterplan for the UK North West, Tier III+ mission-critical campus rendered in V-Ray by StratumCGI, director commentary frame from SCGI-002 anonymised case study — Industrial architectural visualisation · Hyperscale data centre CGI masterplan · SCGI-002 · StratumCGI

Director Interview

George Nicola

Founder and Director, StratumCGI

How did the client first approach StratumCGI for a hyperscale data centre CGI commission?

StratumCGI was approached by the architects on the scheme, who had already drawn up the data hall, the attached office and operations block, the plant yard, and the on-site substation compound. They needed a CGI partner who understood mission-critical buildings, not just commercial sheds, and who could render the MEP plant as a design feature rather than hide it behind landscape.

The first conversation was about the plant yard and the security perimeter. Both are where hyperscale CGI tends to fall apart: generic renders dress up the facade but skip the chillers and generators, and a planning consultee will call that out immediately.

What did the hyperscale data centre CGI brief cover?

The brief covered a six-frame still set for the single-hall campus: a hero three-quarter view showcasing the data hall and the attached office, an aerial context frame, a plant yard composition, a security entrance frame, a top-down masterplan, and a facade material close-up.

Each frame was scoped to a planning audience and an investor audience in parallel. Planning needed the scheme rendered accurately against the landscape. The operator and the investor committee needed the MEP plant and the substation compound visible enough to back the IT load and PUE numbers in the technical memo.

How did StratumCGI build the 3D model of the hyperscale data hall?

StratumCGI rebuilt the scheme in our studio pipeline from the architects' CAD package and the MEP coordination set. The data hall volume, the attached office block, the gatehouse, the plant yard with chiller array and backup generators, and the on-site substation compound all came in as reference geometry and we modelled up from there.

The material specification was built as physical layers, not textures. The anthracite RAL 7016 precast concrete wall panels, the mid-grey RAL 7035 aluminium cladding bands, the anthracite curtain wall mullions on the office block, the vertical MEP louvre strips, the rooftop plant enclosures, the chiller array louvred screens, and the palisade security fencing are all modelled elements.

We also modelled the landscape and infrastructure context. The perimeter bunds, the CCTV poles, the anti-ram bollards, the transformer compound, and the access road connecting to the distant A-road are real geometry, sized against the scheme drawings.

What was the most challenging part of this hyperscale CGI project?

The plant yard and the security perimeter were the demanding compositions on the whole scheme. A hyperscale data centre is judged on the parts of the building that look utilitarian from the outside: the chiller array, the generator line, the substation compound, and the fencing.

We modelled the chiller array on a raised concrete plinth with louvred acoustic screens, the backup generator line in matching cladding, the on-site substation as a separately fenced transformer compound, and the palisade fence with CCTV poles at realistic spacing. Every element had to line up with the operator's own MEP standard, because the investment committee and the operator walk into the same pre-let meeting.

The second challenge was holding the scheme together as a single visit. All six frames had to share one overcast UK morning, one lighting rig, and one material response, so the set reads as one coherent project rather than six buildings shot on six different days.

How did StratumCGI solve those CGI challenges?

StratumCGI solved the plant yard by modelling the chiller and generator geometry from first principles. Chiller cabinet footprints, louvred acoustic screen heights, generator enclosure spacing, and fuel tank placement were all built to real-world dimensions and cross-checked against the MEP coordination drawings from the architects.

The security perimeter was modelled as a continuous palisade line with CCTV poles at regular centres, a rotating gate at the main entrance, anti-ram bollards in the apron, and a single gatehouse. The scene reads as a credible Tier III+ facility to an operator walking the boundary.

For the six-frame consistency we locked the camera rig and the lighting rig in one shared V-Ray scene. The hero frame was rendered first. Every subsequent frame was derived from the same master lighting state, so the whole series carries the same time of day, the same sky, and the same material response.

What stages did the hyperscale data centre CGI project move through?

The CGI project moved through five stages: briefing with the architects and the MEP consultants, 3D base modelling from the CAD and MEP package, plant yard and security perimeter setup, draft rendering with iteration rounds, and final delivery in planning and marketing formats.

Stage one was the briefing call and the agreed view list. Stage two was base modelling from the architects' drawings. Stage three was the plant yard, the substation compound, and the security perimeter layer.

Stage four was draft rendering and revision rounds with the architects, the operator, and the MEP consultants. Stage five was final delivery. A full set of stills and web-sized and print-ready versions for every channel the architects, the operator, and the developer needed to publish into.

What do investors typically expect from a hyperscale data centre scheme like this once it is delivered?

Investors in UK hyperscale data centres are underwriting against a fairly specific set of numbers. Prime UK hyperscale yields have sat around 4.0 to 4.75 percent through 2024 and into 2025, which is sharper than big-box logistics because the leases are longer and the covenants are harder. Rents are typically indexed to power rather than to floor area, and the market tracks IT load capacity in megawatts more closely than gross internal area in square metres.

That means the CGI is underwriting an investment decision that is structured very differently from a commercial shed. The investment committee needs the MW capacity, the Tier III+ resilience, the PUE target, and the on-site substation all visibly represented in the imagery, because that is what the operator covenant is actually backed by.

Developers we work with expect the imagery to help secure a hyperscale pre-let on the back of the planning pack. A pre-let signed before practical completion compresses the risk premium on exit significantly, and the CGI is part of how that pre-let conversation happens.

Briefs From the Project Team for the North West Hyperscale Data Centre CGI

A hyperscale data centre CGI commission arrives as a stack of separate briefs from the developer marketing team, the investment committee, the letting and leasing agents, the project architects, and the MEP and landscape engineers. The five briefs below are the versions StratumCGI reconciled into a single production pipeline for this Tier III+ North West campus.

Brief One · Developer Marketing Team

Marketing Team Brief for the Hyperscale Data Centre CGI

Scope: LinkedIn and paid ad crops, investor teaser spreads, website heroes, and press images cut from the rendered frames.

The marketing team briefed a multi-format image set built around the six rendered frames, cut for the specific channels the developer publishes into without retouching between destinations.

The channel list they asked for:

LinkedIn: 1200 x 627 link preview for sponsored posts, 1128 x 191 company page banner, and 1080 x 1080 carousel tiles for organic posts.
Facebook and Instagram paid ads: 1200 x 628 landscape, 1080 x 1080 square, 1080 x 1350 portrait feed, and 1080 x 1920 story and reel.
Website hero and section banners: 1920 x 900 desktop hero, 1200 x 600 tablet hero, and 16:9 mid-page section banner.
Investor teaser spreads: A4 landscape full-bleed at 300 dpi, pre-cropped for the teaser memo template.
Press and trade publication: 2000 x 1333 landscape, 1500 x 2000 portrait, and 400 x 400 thumbnail at 300 dpi.
Brochure and printing: A4 portrait and A3 landscape full-bleed spreads for the developer brochure.

They also asked for the cladding palette to stay continuous with the developer's existing data centre portfolio. The anthracite RAL 7016 precast panels, the mid-grey RAL 7035 aluminium bands, and the anthracite mullions had to match the other halls in the developer's live portfolio.

Brief Two · Investment Committee

Investment Committee Brief for the Hyperscale Data Centre CGI

Scope: Aerial and masterplan frames that show the data hall, the plant yard, and the substation compound for the internal investment pack.

The investment committee wanted the straightforward stuff. Clean aerial and masterplan frames that show the data hall footprint, the plant yard with chillers and generators, and the on-site substation compound, so the MW capacity and PUE numbers in the investment pack line up with what is actually being delivered.

No cinematic framing. Just imagery that matches the drawings and supports the spec sheet the committee circulates with the operator covenant review.

Brief Three · Leasing Agents

Leasing Agents Brief for the Hyperscale Data Centre CGI

Scope: Plant yard and security entrance frames for a hyperscale pre-let pitch, plus multi-aspect crops for agency marketing.

The leasing agents briefed frames built for a hyperscale pre-let pitch. The plant yard composition had to show the chiller array and the generator line at accurate scale, because a hyperscale operator looking at the image is effectively auditing the MEP before they even commission a site visit.

The security entrance frame had to show the gatehouse, the bollards, and the palisade perimeter at human scale so the operator's security consultants could sign off the access geometry from the render alone.

Brief Four · Project Architects

Architects Brief for the Hyperscale Data Centre CGI

Scope: Facade material close-ups, MEP louvre detail, and full massing frames for the planning submission and design and access statement.

The architects briefed the technical set. The visual had to match the CAD package exactly: the data hall volume, the attached office and operations block, the vertical MEP louvre strips, the anthracite RAL 7016 precast panels, the RAL 7035 aluminium cladding bands, the anthracite curtain wall mullions, and the plant yard geometry all rendered to the same tolerance as the drawings.

They also briefed the material close-ups for the design and access statement and the consultation boards for the public exhibition. The architectural brief is the one where the CGI has to survive the closest scrutiny, because any drift between render and drawing is caught immediately on a planning committee screen.

Brief Five · MEP and Landscape Engineers

MEP and Landscape Engineers Brief for the Hyperscale Data Centre CGI

Scope: Plant yard geometry, substation compound layout, AVR Type 3 verified viewpoint set, and landscape mitigation for the visual impact input.

The MEP consultants and the landscape engineers briefed the technical plant and the receptor set in parallel. The MEP consultants defined the chiller cabinet footprints, the generator enclosure spacing, the fuel storage compound, and the on-site substation layout at real-world dimensions. The landscape engineers fixed the viewpoint matrix, the lighting state, and the foliage state the imagery needed to render under for a GLVIA3-aligned visual impact input to the planning pack.

Between them they briefed the perimeter planting, the landscape bunds, the hawthorn hedging, and the cumulative mitigation strategy at the scale a planning authority expects for a mission-critical scheme. Their version is the one where both the plant yard and the landscape read as designed engineering, not decorative backdrop.

How StratumCGI Answered All Five Briefs in One CGI Set

StratumCGI reconciled the five party briefs into a single production pipeline that produced one coherent six-frame still set. Every frame answers at least two of the briefs at once, and the set as a whole answers all five. The reconciliation happened in three phases.

Phase 1: Brief alignment

We mapped each frame to the briefs it needed to serve. The hero campus view carries the marketing and leasing agent briefs. The aerial context and the masterplan aerial answer the investment committee and the landscape engineers. The plant yard frame answers the leasing agents and the MEP consultants. The security entrance frame answers the leasing agents and the architects. The facade material detail frame answers the architects and the marketing team.

Phase 2: Model, material, plant, and lighting setup

We rebuilt the scheme in V-Ray from the architects' CAD package and the MEP coordination set. The anthracite RAL 7016 precast panels, the RAL 7035 aluminium cladding bands, the anthracite mullions, the vertical MEP louvre strips, the rooftop plant enclosures, the chiller array, the backup generator line, and the on-site substation compound were all applied as physical elements. The lighting was set to the overcast UK reference-day specified by the landscape engineers for AVR Type 3 delivery.

Phase 3: Frame rendering and iteration

We rendered the hero frame first and locked the camera and lighting rig. Every subsequent frame was derived from that master state, which meant the six frames read as one visit to one scheme. Draft renders went back to the architects, the MEP consultants, the landscape engineers, and the marketing team in parallel, and we iterated through a small number of revision rounds on chiller spacing, cladding tone, and perimeter planting density until every brief was signed off.

Final delivery

The final set was delivered in three formats. Planning portal resolution for the architects and the landscape engineers. Print-ready resolution for the consultation boards. Web-sized and social crops for the marketing team and the leasing agents. A consultation flythrough animation was quoted but not commissioned on this scheme; it remains available as an optional extra for buyers who want one.

UK Data Centre Clusters We Visualise

Hyperscale data centre CGI in the UK covers a small number of specific regional clusters with the grid capacity, fibre connectivity, and land availability to support Tier III+ campuses. StratumCGI produces industrial architectural visualisation for schemes across every primary UK data centre market, from Slough in the south to the North West and the Scottish Central Belt.

The primary UK data centre clusters we visualise include the Slough and West London Data Centre Market at M4 J5 to J7, the Park Royal and West London cluster, the Docklands and East London cluster around the Thames Gateway, the South Mimms and Enfield cluster on the M25, the Reading and Thames Valley cluster, the Hayes and Heathrow Airport cluster, the North West cluster around Manchester, Warrington, and Trafford on the M6 and M62 corridor, the Yorkshire data centre cluster around Leeds and Doncaster, the Newcastle and Tyneside cluster, the Scottish Central Belt around Edinburgh and Glasgow, and the South Wales cluster around Cardiff and Newport for subsea cable landing stations.

Emerging and secondary clusters we cover include the Milton Keynes data centre corridor, the Coventry and Warwick cluster on the M40 and M6, the Midlands data centre corridor around Birmingham, and the East Anglia cluster around Cambridge driven by research and science campus demand.

Every cluster has its own grid capacity profile, its own planning authority approach, its own fibre route set, and its own landscape and visual impact context. StratumCGI matches each hyperscale data centre CGI commission to the actual cluster context: the right grid and substation geometry, the right chiller and generator plant typology, the right security perimeter standard, and the right material palette for the operator's global visual identity. If your hyperscale scheme sits in any of the UK clusters named above, we can render it for planning submission, operator covenant review, and hyperscale pre-let marketing.

Project Timeline

Industrial architectural visualisation of a hyperscale data centre CGI plant yard showing the external chiller array, backup generator line, and on-site substation compound, UK North West, final delivery frame by StratumCGI, SCGI-002 anonymised case study — Industrial architectural visualisation · Hyperscale data centre CGI plant yard · SCGI-002 · StratumCGI

Stage 1	Briefing with architects and MEP consultants, viewpoint list agreed
Stage 2	3D base modelling from CAD and MEP coordination drawings
Stage 3	Plant yard, substation compound, and security perimeter setup
Stage 4	Draft rendering, architect and MEP consultant revision rounds
Stage 5	Final delivery in planning, investor, and marketing formats

Commission Hyperscale Data Centre CGI for Your Scheme

StratumCGI produces hyperscale data centre CGI, plant yard technical frames, verified views, aerial masterplan renders, and security perimeter visuals for Tier III+ mission-critical schemes across Slough, West London, Thames Valley, the North West, Yorkshire, the Scottish Central Belt, and every other primary UK data centre cluster. Whether your scheme is pre-application, in planning, or being marketed to a hyperscale operator, we produce the imagery you need to secure consents and pre-lets.

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North West Hyperscale Data Centre (SCGI-002)