WikiLeaks is getting ready to drop another mega-bomb, this one about high-profile tax evaders, which got us wondering: Where does WikiLeaks actually store all that info?
One place might be Pionen “White Mountain," a data center run by the Swedish broadband provider Bahnhof that looks like a SMERSH hideaway.
The center is a converted nuclear bomb shelter that hosts two "live and kicking" WikiLeaks servers, per Bahnhof spokesman Jon Karlung, 100 feet below the streets of downtown Stockholm. Designed by Albert France-Lanord Architects, the center is a testament to one of the big paradoxes of WikiLeaks: To go about doing good, it has to act like the cagey villain.
Everything about Pionen -- which hosts several other servers -- feels like it came straight out of the mind of Ian Fleming. It's got 1.64-inch thick metal entrance doors and backup generators from German submarines and granite walls thick enough to withstand a whole fleet of disgruntled diplomats (or bitter Swiss bankers).
The center is as humane as possible for something that's effectively a glorified dungeon; the architects added plants on the walls and some much-needed glass accents. But mostly, Pionen is faithful to its bomb-shelter roots. WikiLeaks is better off for it. At the same time that it's utterly transparent about the world, it's forced to be utterly opaque about itself.
See lots more images at ArchDaily.com.
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