Search Disabled |
|
|
|
Search Options | Help | Site Map | Cultivate Web Site | ||||
|
|
|||||
| Home | Current Issue | Index of Back Issues |
| Issue 6 Home | Editorial | Features | Regular Columns | News & Events | Misc. | ||
By Borivoj Indra and Vladimíra Hradecká, photos Miloš Klimeš - February 2002
Borivoj Indra and Vladimíra Hradecká talk about a recently opened monumental archive building located in the southern area of Prague, and the facilities it will offer for Czech archives. Photos by Miloš Klimeš.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
In September 2001, a monumental archive building was completed in Prague which is attracting interest from archivists and other experts from a number of European countries. It is intended that this building will accommodate a third of the archive treasures of the Czech Republic. It is currently being jointly used by the Central State Archives, in whose care are the records of historical and current central authorities and institutions of the Czech state, and the Regional State Archives in Prague, which has has been entrusted with the care of records from the Central Bohemian region and, for commercial matters, from the Capital City of Prague as well. Situated immediately next to this building is the new residence of Archives of the Capital City of Prague, completed in 1997, which also has certain technical equipment in common. The entire complex of these three large and important archive stores create what is known as the Archive Premises of Prague 4 – Chodovec.
 |
| An Overall view of the strongrooms and the back side of the administration building |
Having this concentration of archive collections with their excellent facilities for scientific work has considerably simplified research by the public in studies of historical sources. There is now no time lost moving between individual places of work and strongrooms, which in turn creates ideal conditions for further ways of using these records. Proof of this was the overwhelming interest from the public for the six-week exhibition Treasures of Czech History 1158 – 1990, held in Autumn 2001 to celebrate the commencement of operation of the Archive Premises. This new archive building has deservedly found its place as one of the most important and largest archive buildings in the world, alongside others such as the new National Archive USA II – Maryland, the Federal Archive in Koblenz, the new buildings of the National Archives in the Haag, Madrid, Kew in London, Vienna, Budapest and so on.
Through a number of favourable co-incidences a great number of archives have been preserved in the Czech Republic in a relatively complete state, even though until recently these records were stored in a wide variety of what were mostly antiquated and unsuitable buildings. These buildings frequently failed to fulfil even the basic requirements placed upon archive buildings at the end of the twentieth century. A significant change in the physical provision of security for stored records has only happened in the last ten years, after the dramatic political and social changes at the close of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s. Since 1992, 42 buildings of the state district archives – out of a total of 74 - have been newly built or renovated. In this way, not only was the lack of storage space resolved (there used to be no place to receive records), but above all conditions for their future preservation has been radically improved. These new buildings have in general been constructed in compliance with modern requirements for the total protection of records, with a controlled interior environment and all necessary security measures. At the same time, these buildings create excellent conditions for visitors coming to the archives to study records, as well for the all-purpose use of historical documents, providing - for example - well-equipped lecture and exhibition halls. Of no less importance, the frequently sub-standard working environment for the work of archivists has also been transformed.
The Archive Premises at Chodovec is quite unique amongst these new archive buildings. It has become the crowning achievement of the labours and expertise of entire generations of Czech archivists. It is also successful due to the fact that inspiration and experience could also be drawn on from abroad, where the construction of modern archive buildings was pursued en masse as early as the 1970s. Paradoxically, this delay, in comparison with the international trend, has brought the Czech Republic a certain advantage: there were sources that could be used, inspiration that could be gained and, in addition, knowledge of what to avoid. It is clear that, in some cases and mainly through pressures from limited finances, mistakes were made and that these should be assessed and learnt from for later constructions. Experiences up to now in the use of the strongroom blocks of the Archive Premises, which were brought into operation as early as in 1996, being much earlier than the administrative and technical building, have so far shown however satisfying results.
The position of the premises in the Prague 4 district, 285 metres above sea level and well away from the flood plain, has been well chosen. The site of the construction is of a sufficient area (the entire Archive Premises lie on 4.37 hectares) to enable for it not only to be surrounded by green park areas, but also for it to provide possibilities for further development in the long-term future. Its proximity to Metro Route C and frequent bus connections allow the premises to be reached from the city centre within thirty to forty minutes using public transport without any great difficulty. Getting here is also made easier by road connections to the main motorway between Prague and Brno, as well as to the city circular road route.
 |
| An Overall view of the main entrance and administration building with lecture halls, study rooms, laboratories |
Conceived on a vast scale, this construction takes up almost 12,000 square metres of building area and practically 286,000 cubic metres of interior space. Its three strongroom blocks (RB I, II and III) are clearly visible from far away, with a single floor below ground level and a highest thirteenth floor purely for technical equipment. The maximum height of the building is 42 metres. Whilst to the east of the strongroom blocks there stands the equally high grey building of the Archives of the Capital City of Prague, on the west side there extends the broad expanse of the outlying five-floor administrative and technical building for both archives. The strongroom blocks have been designed in such a way as to minimise the distance between the strongroom rooms and the research rooms, which are located in the administrative building. The central axis of the construction is strongroom block RB I, connected to the administrative and technical building by a five-floor joining “neck”. On the opposite side to this axis lie the strongroom blocks RB II and RB III in the shape of a letter T. All three of these strongroom block wings are connected by a main service corridor that has two service lifts and access to a fire emergency staircase joining together all the floors. On the East side of the main connecting corridor from the second to the twelfth floor above ground, there are light and spacious arrangement rooms and work rooms, forming “secondary work areas” that archivists use for making records and viewing archive materials. Here they can carry out retrieval and arrangement work without even taking the records to the work areas in the administrative block. In this way, there is no unnecessary movement of records and, also importantly, it saves time for these specialists.
The construction design of both the strongroom blocks and the
administrative and technical parts takes into account not only
their functional use but also the safe storage of records,
providing maximum protection against influences that could
endanger them. The most important parts of the archives are the
strongrooms. With only slight variations, they have a floor
area of 183 square metres and ensure the necessary load-bearing
capacity. In strongroom block RB I, which is equipped with
mobile shelvings, on each floor there are 6 halls, each with
two-sided racks which are twice 40 cm deep, 300 cm wide and 206
cm high. Each rack has 6 stacks (back-to-back in threes) and in
each of these there are 6 easily adjustable shelves. On each
floor of the RB II and RB III strongroom blocks, there are four
strongroom sections (i.e. a total of 8), which are equipped
with fixed racks of lengths 500 cm and 600 cm. Its main aisle is
120 cm wide and the aisles between individual racks are 80 cm
wide. These fixed racks, which are 232 cm high, have either 5 or
6 s with sets of seven adjustable shelves. The manufacturer of
all these racks, which have proved themselves well during use, is
the company Ramet, s.r.o. from Kunovice near Uherské
Hradiste. The theoretical storage capacity of the strongrooms
is approximately 1100 metres for fixed racks and 1668 metres for
moveable ones. The actual storage capacity is, however, somewhat
less due to differences in the dimensions of archive boxes and
books. Certain depositories are specially equipped for storing
maps and plans. On the 12th floor above ground, there are halls
that have been specially adapted in order to accommodate
photographic and video materials. Those basement strongrooms
that are designated as the quarantine zone have been
designed for the temporary storage of records before dust is
removed from them or if they have to be disinfected. In the depot
sections of the construction, the Regional State Archives use the
sixth to the eighth floors, one cold storage strongroom on
the twelfth floor for the storage of photographic material and
one hall in the basement. In total, there are 153 strongrooms
for standard records and of these the Central State
Archives use 113 and the Regional State Archives 40. There are 29
halls for non-standard records and libraries of which the
Regional State Archives uses three, the rest being used by the
Central State Archives. The actual capacity of all 153 strongrooms
with either fixed or mobile shelvings for standard records is
approximately 220,000 metres. Of this, the Central State Archives
can use approximately 163,000 metres and the Regional State
Archives around 57,000. At the time operation was commenced in
the building, there were around 135,000 metres of records stored
in the strongrooms, of which approximately 105,000 were in
Central State Archives sections and around 30,000 in Regional
State Archives sections. Further records continue to be added
progressively.
In the strongroom wing RB II, areas designed for receiving records have been built on. Next to a small gatehouse, there are three ramps with an adjustable hydraulic loading platform for the easy transfer of records from vans directly to two spacious receiving halls. The larger of these is used for the Central State Archives and the smaller for the Regional State Archives. Adjoining these are small offices for cataloguing and other administrative matters connected with the acquisition process. Each hall is equipped with three dust extractor desks with three-stage air filtering. When these are not sufficiently effective, for example for records with high dust levels, traditional manual cleaning methods have to be employed using high-powered vacuum suction devices.
An integral and very interesting part of the ground floor section of the building are the fumigation areas with their management and control centre, which is used jointly by both archives. The unsuitable storage conditions of the previous decades mentioned above have meant that approximately a quarter of the records are affected by mildew which degrades paper. The fumigation centre is equipped with two pressure autoclaves made by the Spanish company Matachana. They have a volume of 6.2 square metres and, when in operation continuously, carry out fumigation using 10% ethylene oxide diluted in a mixture with 90% CO2 (trade name: etoxen). This capacity level is currently the largest of all archive buildings in the world. Due to the fact that ethylene oxide is classed as a substance that is harmful to health, great attention is paid to the safety of work carried out with it. Part of this fumigation line is equipment which performs sensitive measurements with great accuracy and ensures the airing of the records and the ecologically safe disposal of chemical products. This entire process lasts for seven days, during which on two lines adjacent to each other during a single 24 hour period, up to 70 metres of records held in special cages can be treated. The disinfected records are then for the following six days gradually aired in special tunnels until the residual ethylene oxide is reduced to a hygienically admissible level. The whole process of fumigation is controlled by a technically flawless monitoring system, which evaluates data about ethylene oxide concentrations. In the unlikely event of a breakdown involving a leak of ethylene oxide, it is able to react automatically and stop the process immediately. After seven days, the records are taken away from the other end of the line by service lifts to their final place of storage in the strongrooms.
The architectural and construction engineering design of the strongroom blocks was governed entirely by the need to safeguard the stored records. Its whole enormous weight rests on reinforced concrete foundation blocks 1500 mm thick, which lie in foundation basins. These are protected against any aggressive effects of groundwater by a coating on the outside and high-pressure isolating PVC inserted on the inside. As a covering for the depository building, a sandwich construction is used with an air gap covered by ceramic cladding. The development of best practice in the construction of similar buildings has shown that this ensures a high level of temperature constancy, as well as reducing operating costs for air conditioning. At the same time, however, this also preserves the diffusion properties of the walls for offsetting any fluctuations in relative humidity inside the halls. The bright colours of the large ceramic panels that create its facing give the building a unique character and provide an appropriate visual lightening to the otherwise enormous mass of the windowless strongrooms buildings. Articles in the press predominantly assess it positively as being “the most cheerful construction in Prague”. The actual strongrooms are fully air conditioned, with a separate system in use for each floor, allowing air conditioning to be regulated in accordance with immediate requirements. The internal environment of each individual hall can be finely adjusted using ventilation that is independent of the air conditioning system. The optimal constant temperature of 15·C ± 2·C with relative humidity at 55% ± 5% is ensured by an air conditioning system with measuring and control equipment supplied by the company STAEFA CZ. For colour photographic material, a temperature of 5·C ± 1·C is maintained and for black and white 12·C ± 1·C, with relative humidity in both cases at 35% ± 5%. All these parameters comply with the recommendations of the International Archives Council. Even though the building is situated in an area that has low levels of air pollution, any intake of outside air into the system is kept to a minimum. The air conditioning functions as a closed circulation system. Only occasionally, and mostly at night when air pollution is low, can approximately a 5% intake of air be made.
The fire prevention system in the strongroom blocks is unique. The Swedish company Wormald installed a fixed fire extinction system inside them that uses a gas which is not harmful to health, known by the trade name inergen (a mixture of oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and argon). Electronic fire signalling has been installed throughout the entire building equipped with self-activating and push-button fire extinguishers, connected to a main control centre. In the case of a fire alarm, after a specified time delay during which employees should leave the building, fire doors to each repository room and to central corridors of each strongroom block close automatically, separating these areas from the main service corridor and the arrangement rooms and work areas. In addition to the doors, fire proof flaps are also shut and the ventilation switched off throughout the entire floor. Fire extinguishing gas is fed under pressure through a pipe distribution system into strongrooms where the danger of fire has been detected. The oxygen content of the hall is thus reduced from 21% to 11%. This is a reliable means for putting out the fire without endangering persons who were not able for any reason to leave the strongrooms. In addition to the central fire escape staircase, there are three more emergency staircases in the repository room sections for evacuation purposes and these are connected to the end of each strongroom block. Specialised fire fighting equipment is an integral part of the fumigation line process in the airing tunnels that follow the fumigation chamber. The other areas of the site, including the administrative and technical buildings, are safeguarded using conventional fire fighting devices such as hydrants, dry risers and hand-held fire extinguishers, in addition to the fire prevention construction elements prescribed by law.
 |
| A view into the non-mobile shelvings where the documents are housed |
The expert conservation, restoration and reprographic work areas of both archives play a crucial role in the care of the records. In particular, the contribution made by the central laboratory of the Central State Archives goes beyond its internal remit and it serves as a national archive research, training and consultation centre. The smaller studio of the Regional State Archives is also equipped with advanced technical equipment and qualified staff. The workshop here serves not only its own archive, but also restores and conserves threatened record materials from twelve state district archives, with in the future this being extended to include company archives from Central Bohemia and the Capital City of Prague.
Due to the fact that the archives and the archive records stored in them are used for researches by the general public, the entire building has been designed in such a way that the possibility of damage or theft of records is as small as possible, whether this concerns the research rooms, which are always a kind of sensitive point in every archive, or in the case of entry by unauthorised persons. If this were to occur, the building is protected by an electronic system with automatic alarms. All entry points and exposed places are controlled by closed-circuit television and there are guards on duty in the building 24 hours a day. This is an absolute necessity due to the importance and irreplaceable nature of the records which are cared for here.
The new administrative operating part of the building is separated from the strongrooms by a joining “neck”. Situated next to the emergency staircase are a large-capacity service lift and two smaller passenger lifts which are used for transferring records to research rooms on trolleys. Following much consideration and on the basis of experiences with the use of automated transport systems in certain buildings abroad, the transport of records to research rooms using containers moving along small tracks was rejected.
Areas accessible to the general public are strictly separated from those which are designated for the transport, access to and handling of records. This conforms with the principles which are applied in the absolute majority of large modern archive buildings. Visitors have a large entry hall (610 m2) available to them, which serves a whole range of purposes. Both visitors and staff come into the entry hall past a reception desk that is responsible for control and registration duties. At the information service desk, visitors are given initial information necessary for subsequent direction-finding, in accordance with their requirements. On the opposite wall, there is a clear map of the administrative building which marks areas used by the individual archives. Visitors can here read about the main activities of both archives and about the important archive collections that they administer. Visitors from the general public go on to the cloakrooms and then further on to certain of the research rooms or library. Other visitors are directed to places for meetings with archive staff, according to their needs. In this case, they await the arrival of the archive staff member who will look after them and who takes them to one of the discussion rooms on the ground floor, or if required to his or her own study.
 |
| The lobby in public entrance hall |
From the entrance hall, visitors can reach either the exhibition or conference hall (for 235 persons), which are used jointly by both archives. For smaller events, in particular for schools and for experts from the general public, there are two lecture halls of which one is for the Central State Archives and is for 91 persons and the other for the Regional State Archives for up to 64 persons. Situated behind the large conference hall, there is the registry filing office of Central State Archives and cloakrooms for the joint use of researchers. In these, these are 170 lockers and here visitors to the study rooms can store outer garments and bags under their own lock and key. As is usual in all archives, only pencil and paper are allowed into the research rooms, as well as possibly laptop computers, and, when this is justified, digital cameras, Dictaphones, etc. The entrance hall also serves as a rest area for researchers, who frequently spend many weeks in the research rooms. A pleasant, brightly-coloured environment contributes to this with club chairs, in the middle of which is a fountain with a small water jet. Refreshments are provided in a cafeteria that has several tables. There is also a well-ventilated room here for smokers.
The research room of the Central State Archives is designed for 103 researchers. There are 81 places available to them at tables for researching standard types of archive materials and ten places at large tables for researching archive materials of atypical sizes, in particular maps and plans. There are twelve places in individual boxes for researchers who have specific technical research requirements. High levels of demand have made necessary the enlargement of the Regional State Archives research room with a total of 54 places at tables, of which seventeen of the largest are equipped with reading devices for researching microfilm. On this material there are above all copies of old registry documents (approximately from the 1780s and older). As a result of ever increasing interest from the non-professional general public in genealogical studies, these are the most often requested archive records and the physical condition of their originals would be endangered by frequent handling by the public. In the smaller research room of the regional archives, all tables are also provided with lighting which the researchers can themselves adjust according to their needs. On entry to the research room, each visitor receives necessary specialist information from staff of the information desk service, registers and requests the handing over of records, which he or she would like to research. Once handed over, these archive materials are entered into the relevant research records and on their return they are checked and only after this is their return confirmed. Lending materials outside the archives is absolutely forbidden, as is the general practice in all archives. Adjoining both research rooms are rooms designed for the reservation of archive materials and microfilm, as well as areas equipped with reprographic devices, etc. Researchers are not allowed into these areas. Next to the research rooms, there are also rooms for specialist consultation on complicated enquiries, where visitors receive required information from expert members of staff of the archives.
From the entrance hall, next to the entrance to the study room of the Central State Archives, there is a special lift and a staircase to the first floor, where the reading room of the specialist archive library is located for specific archive subjects. It is also possible to read the daily press and selected magazines here. The system of operation here is similar to that in the research rooms. In addition to this reading room, both research rooms are provided with a reference library, which contains the most commonly used literature necessary for orienting oneself in the research of archive materials. Visitors to the Central State Archives research room can study historical literature in the study area of the library in the above-mentioned reading room and in the Regional State Archives they can order them together with archive records to be sent to the research room.
In the basement, there is a pleasantly designed refectory that provides catering for staff of both archives, where at lunchtime hot food is served at special prices. Also below ground level there is a small exercise gym, as well as warehouses, garages and other services areas. Visitors and staff with vehicles are provided with three relatively spacious parking areas, with a capacity of up to 140 cars.
The authors have drawn on the study by Kalina, T.: The New Building of the Central State Archives and the Regional State Archives in Prague – Chodovec. In: Central State Archives and its Premises. Praha 2001.
Borivoj Indra
President of the Commission on the New Archive Buildings of the Czech Republic
Vladimíra
Hradecká
Head of Service Departement of the Regional State Archives in Prague, President of the Czech Society of Archivists, Member of the National Node of the Cultivate
Miloš Klimeš
Photographer of the Regional State Archives in Prague
Contact: Jana Souckova
NpM Prague
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For citation purposes:
Indra, B. and Hradecká, V. "Chodovec: The New Prague Archive Building", Cultivate Interactive, issue
6, 11 February 2002
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue6/prague/>
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Related articles:
If you would like to view similar articles to this one click on a key word below:
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
|
|
