Nexus – Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture

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Nexus – Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture

Information

  • Project Name: Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age
  • Student Name: Sangay Dorji Wangchuk
  • Awards: WSA Innovation Award (Presented by Foster + Partners) | RIBA Silver Medal Award Nomination
  • Softwares/Plugins: Rhinoceros 3D , AutoCAD , Adobe Photoshop , SketchUp , Enscape
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Excerpt:‘Nexus – Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age’ is an architecture thesis by Sangay Dorji Wangchuk from the ‘Welsh School of Architecture – Cardiff University.’ It explores architecture’s dual role in enabling and resisting centralized power, advancing Nexus—a speculative corporate prototype grounded in worker sovereignty, cultural accountability, and ethical profit. Through a megastructure that operationalizes transparency and participatory agency, the project reimagines architecture as civic infrastructure for equitable digital futures.

Introduction: This project critically interrogates the architectural implications of data sovereignty in the contemporary information age, foregrounding the existential threats posed by algorithmic governance and data colonialism. The unchecked concentration of power within a handful of corporate actors over digital infrastructures has precipitated vulnerabilities to manipulation, censorship, and the erosion of democratic oversight, undermining national sovereignty, economic stability, and individual autonomy.

Architecture is both complicit in and capable of resisting these dynamics: while historically facilitating opaque, centralized infrastructures that privilege efficiency and corporate interests, it also possesses the capacity to render power structures visible and contestable. The project advances Nexus as a speculative prototype, a responsible corporate entity whose governance blueprint is predicated on worker sovereignty, cultural accountability, and ethical profit allocation. The architectural response proposes a megastructure that operationalises transparency, modularity, and participatory agency, reimagining the built environment as a civic infrastructure for equitable digital futures and algorithmic self-determination.

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Site Context

Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
Data Colonialism as a new geopolitical power, where resource extraction is replaced by data extraction perpetuating exploitation and sovereignty for data poor nations
Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
Corporate monopolies over big data have created a new form of algorithmic governance where tech giants control critical infrastructure, eroding democratic oversight

In an era where every nation must assert control over its digital destiny, the need for infrastructures that safeguard data sovereignty is universal. While the project’s prototype Nexus has a global ambition, this thesis zooms in on the Port of Cardiff as a critical site of intervention. 

Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
Cardiff’s unique mix of industrial legacy, coastal risk, and digital ambition makes it the perfect laboratory for a prototype megastructure
Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
Cardiff’s unique mix of industrial legacy, coastal risk, and digital ambition makes it the perfect laboratory for a prototype megastructure

Cardiff, with its legacy as a gateway for global trade and its evolving identity as a digital and cultural hub, offers an experimental context to reimagine how architecture can mediate between local agency and global networks.

Design Process

Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
Megastructure Programming inspired by the Welsh Carthen and the Tokyo Bay Masterplan by Kenzo Tange
Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
Megastructure envisioned as a system of link and nodes akin to an information network system

The proposed program integrates high-performance data centers, civic co-operative workspaces, governance forums, and community learning hubs within a megastructure that reclaims and transforms the post-industrial waterfront. Functions include secure digital infrastructure, blockchain-verified digital identity services, economic empowerment tools, and sustainable energy systems leveraging tidal energy for local benefit. 

Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
Key technical study focusing on adaptation to the estuary
Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
The strip connecting the digital and physical through encrypted data tunnels delivering citizen governed service to every 15-minute cell of the city

The architecture is conceived as a living civic system: modular, transparent, and participatory, designed to make power structures visible and negotiable. By situating Nexus on the Port of Cardiff, the project demonstrates how local interventions can model new paradigms for algorithmic sovereignty, balancing global connectivity with community empowerment and ethical governance.

Final Outcome

Each district acts as a civic armature within the megastructure, offering a different relationship between people, infrastructure, and governance.

This project presents a visionary framework that reimagines architecture’s role in reclaiming data sovereignty and promoting ethical governance within urban contexts. By focusing on the Port of Cardiff, the project offers a localized yet globally relevant model for decentralising digital infrastructure and challenging corporate data monopolies. 

Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
The Data Senedd stands as the architectural culmination of a city reprogrammed to contest data colonialism and algorithmic opacity
Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
The typology of the Data Senedd merges four domains: the civic forum, the data centre, the tidal power station, and the cooperative R&D workplace.

Nexus proposes a cooperative system that integrates technological innovation with social equity and environmental sustainability, making digital infrastructure transparent and accountable to the community it serves. This approach empowers local residents through participatory governance and collective ownership, ensuring that economic benefits are reinvested locally. Moreover, the project addresses ecological responsibility by incorporating sustainable resource management strategies. 

Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
This server nave is an accessible, open-source data hub visible even from the exterior, visitors observe not only hardware, but also metadata overlays. It is a reversal of the black-box data model, offering auditability.

Conclusion: Ultimately, Nexus serves as a replicable prototype for cities worldwide, demonstrating how architecture can mediate the complex relationship between technology, society, and the environment, fostering democratic control over data and enabling equitable, resilient urban futures.

[This Academic Project has been published with text and images submitted by the student]

Site Context

Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture

Design Process

Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture

Final Outcome

Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture
Nexus - Data Sovereignty In The New Information Age: Designing Equitable Infrastructures For Algorithmic Self-Determination | Masters Thesis On Speculative Architecture

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