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 - USÓN, Cristina: Adaptation of Ancient Buildings as Archives Repositories in Spain
226 Archive Buildings An opposite case would be the Archivo Historico of Tarragona, where a new 8 storey building has been constructed around a cloister, the only element which has been kept from the old building. 2.2.3 At the beginning we spoke of the Archives of the Chancillería de Valladolid, where the availability of a piece of land next to the archives made it possible to construct new strongrooms and to remodel the area currently occupied. Albacete’s archives also employed a combined solution: a land was acquired next to the existing building, and the facade was extended in the same architectural style to give the impression of a single building. A very interesting case is the new historical archive of Córdoba. The archives were originally installed in the 13th century church of Santo Domingo, whose interior was completely removed. To gain more space, an adjoining 17th century baroque house was bought for the research and working areas. The result has been highly satisfactory: a church that was in ruins has been saved, and the archives are lodged in an appropriate setting. Complications in the restoration project arose when two roman mosaics and hidden gothic arches were discovered which had to be restored and returned to their original position. Even the typical Andalusian patio of the house was painted in its original colors, white and “albero” (the color of the sand in a bullfighting ring). 2.3 Not even Andalusian archives, which suffer from extreme variations in temperature, are being provided with air-conditioning systems in the strongrooms, since the maintenance of such systems is beyond our economic capability. A natural air flow system is used to maintain a stable temperature and humidity. It is based on a flow of air which is caused by the temperature difference between two facades which face different directions. The vents are covered by filters. No heating is used. There are the customary controls against fire, with each repository equipped with an automatic ionization chamber gas detection system and dry-powder extinguishers. The most modem archives are equipped with halon gas extinguishers, but they are very expensive; no Spanish archive has an automatic sprinkler system. The only lighting system is fluorescent light, wich is sometimes too bright, surpassing 50 lux in strongrooms or 200 lux in the research areas. Security systems are also being installed, controlled by closed-circuit television, which up to now has been used only in the major archives. 3 The question of whether archives should be installed in new or readapted buildings has not been settled. It seems clear to me that construction of a new building is more suited to the needs of the archives and its cost is lower.
