Mitteilungen des Österreichischen Staatsarchivs 39. (1986)

Archive Buildings and the Conservation of Archival Material. An Expert Meeting, held in Vienna, Austria October 30 - November 1, 1985 - BUCHMANN, Wolf: Planning an Archive Building. The Cooperation between Architect and Archivist

PLANNING AN ARCHIVE BUILDING

THE COOPERATION BETWEEN ARCHITECT AND ARCHIVIST*) By Wolf Buchmann

1. Introduction. - 2. Planning and other preparatory steps to achieve the approval for a new archive building (p. 205). - 3. Cooperation with the political authorities: 3.1 Approval of the list of rooms, their size and purpose (p. 205); 3.2 The decision about the site for the building (p. 207); 3.3 The draft of the budget (p. 208). - 4. Cooperation with the architect: 4.1 Choice of architect (p. 209); 4.2 Knowledge of archives necessaryfor the architect: 4.2.1 General aspects of planning (p. 210); 4.2.2 Planning the area for the public (p. 213); 4.2.3 Planning the offices and laboratories (p. 214); 4.2.4 Planning the repositories (p. 215). — 5. Conclusion (p. 217).

1

This paper refers to and reflects the experiences gained in the last decade in the planning and the construction of the new building for the Bundesarchiv at Koblenz. In general these experiences are applicable to other archival institutions. In some details, of course, they depend on the special situation and responsibilities of the Bundesarchiv, especially because the Bundesarchiv is not only in charge of paper records, microfilms and magnetic media, but also — unlike most of the other national archives in Europe - of the national movie film production from the period of the Deutsche Reich and the Federal Republic of Germany. The size, the costs and the technical requirements for all parts of an archival building have to correspond to the nature and extent of the holdings, the number and the qualification of staff members as well as to the archival working procedures and the services offered to researchers. It might therefore be useful to provide some data about the Bundesarchiv as background information for the planning and construction of the new archive building:

At present the archival holdings of the Bundesarchiv1) comprise:

Charters: 10.000 approximately

*) A german version of this article was published in Archivum 31 (1986) 27-36. For the present publication the figures concerning the costs of the new building and the technical equipment have been revised to reflect the latest adaptions of the planning.

') Gerhard Granier - Josef Henke - Klaus Oldenhage Das Bundesarchiv und seine Bestände (Boppard am Rhein 31977); Heinz Boberach State Archives in the Federal Republic of Germany in Der Archivar Heft 3 (1984) Sp. 13—23; Brigitte Booms Der Neubau für das Bundesarchiv. Ein Archivzweckbau im Entstehen in Der Archivar Heft 2 (1984) Sp. 195-202.