About This Project
A new-generation Data Center - with a new-generation 360°+3D visualization
GlobalVision Communication partnered with Infomaniak to produce an immersive virtual tour of their D4 data center — one of the most forward-thinking data center projects in Europe. Built entirely underground in Geneva, D4 recovers 100% of the heat generated by its servers and redirects it to warm up to 6,000 homes through the city’s district heating network. This virtual tour puts visitors right inside that infrastructure, making complex technology immediately understandable.
Infomaniak and the D4 Project
Infomaniak is a Swiss cloud provider founded in 1994 and headquartered in Geneva. For years, the company has operated its data centers without conventional air conditioning, relying instead on filtered outdoor air. D4 goes further. It is a fully underground facility that runs entirely on renewable electricity and feeds recovered heat directly into SIG’s district heating network. At full capacity, D4 consumes around 14 GWh of electricity annually — and recovers an equivalent 14 GWh of heat per year. That’s a genuinely rare technical achievement in the data center world.
The D4 project is also fully open-source. Infomaniak chose to document every technical detail so other operators can replicate the model. As a result, communicating this infrastructure clearly — to engineers, policymakers, and the general public — became an important challenge.
The Challenge: Making Underground Infrastructure Visible
Because D4 is built underground, traditional photography can only go so far. The three-loop heat recovery system, the server room architecture, the ventilation design — these elements are difficult to grasp from static images alone. Furthermore, explaining how heat flows from servers to Geneva homes requires visual storytelling that bridges technical detail with accessible communication.
Infomaniak needed a solution that would work for multiple audiences at once: engineers exploring replication, media and journalists covering the launch, and the broader public curious about what a sustainable data center actually looks like inside.
GlobalVision’s Solution: 360° Tour with Integrated 3D Models
GlobalVision designed and produced a full immersive virtual tour of the D4 facility, combining two complementary approaches. First, we captured high-resolution 360° panoramas throughout the data center — from the server room and cold/hot aisles to the heat pump installations and backup systems. These panoramas let users navigate freely through spaces that are otherwise closed to visitors.
Second, and most distinctively, our team built custom 3D models to illustrate the technologies that can’t be seen directly. The three-loop heat recovery system — from the air-to-water exchanger through the heat pumps to SIG’s district heating — comes to life through accurate three-dimensional representations. Users can see exactly how warm server air transfers heat to water, how heat pumps raise that water to the required temperature, and how the energy ultimately reaches residential buildings. This layer of 3D modeling transforms a technically dense system into something visually intuitive.
Throughout the tour, interactive information points provide additional context at each step. Visitors can click to learn about specific components — the Trane XStream heat pumps, the ebm-papst ventilators, the emergency air cooling mode — without leaving the immersive environment. The result is a tour that works equally well as a public communication tool, a technical reference, and a media asset.
Explore the virtual tour directly here: D4 Technical Guide — Virtual Tour
What the Tour Covers
The virtual tour gives access to the full infrastructure of D4. Visitors can explore the underground server room, understand the cold and hot aisle separation that manages airflow, and follow the energy path from server heat to district heating delivery. Beyond the heat recovery system, the tour also covers the redundancy architecture — dual power entry points, inverter arrays, backup battery banks, and diesel generators — giving a complete picture of how D4 maintains near-zero downtime.
The 3D models add a layer of clarity that photography alone cannot provide. By showing the three interconnected closed loops schematically and spatially, users immediately understand why D4 needs no traditional air conditioning and why it can claim 100% heat recovery. That kind of transparency is rare, and it matches Infomaniak’s open-source philosophy for the whole project.
Why Virtual Tours Work for Technical Infrastructure
An immersive virtual tour does several things that conventional documentation cannot. It places the viewer inside the space, giving a genuine sense of scale and layout. It allows non-linear exploration — an engineer might go straight to the heat pump section, while a journalist might start at the server room. And it works across devices, from desktop browsers to VR headsets, making the same content accessible to very different audiences.
For D4 specifically, the virtual tour also serves a long-term archival function. As Infomaniak continues to share this open-source model with other operators worldwide, the tour provides a permanent, navigable reference that goes beyond diagrams and technical sheets. It is the infrastructure, made walkable.
Ready to Bring Your Infrastructure to Life?
Whether you manage a data center, a manufacturing facility, a research laboratory, or any complex technical space, GlobalVision can build an immersive virtual tour that communicates your work clearly and compellingly. We combine 360° production, custom 3D modeling, and interactive design into a single, deployable experience.
Contact us to discuss your project and find out what an immersive tour could do for your communication.
