u/SroyceA

I’m in the US, Ohio. Went to a friends place and saw that the main floor did not have drywall or anything covering the joist for the ceiling. It was just painted with professionally installed lighting. Kinda industrial look I guess.

I’ve done construction jobs most of my life and had the luxury of learning from guys that have whole lives worth of experience. When I was learning drywall, 20 years ago now, I was taught your ceiling is required to be 5/8 thick. Was told it is for fire containment. Same reason blocking is needed if you are running long studs between two floors.

Did this rule change? Was it ever a rule? Are your ceiling joists aloud to be exposed?

Without connections and money the big ideas I have feel like they will never be realized. I don’t need to profit off them, but who would say no to getting paid for an idea. I want to share this here in hopes someone may have the ability to run with it.

Data centers are not going away. Why not build subterranean structures? It gets cold here in North Dakota. Also plenty of barren land. The beauty of this plan is the cows can still graze or gardens can still grow on the surface. I can see the whole design in my head. Using the ground for cooling, capturing the heat for energy generation. It’s a big sky full of many arrangements for how a concept like this could take shape.