Photo: Stephane Chalmeau, courtesy of Ibos et Vitart

© Ibos & Vitart . Published on January 24, 2007.

Formerly an instrument of government, an archive building nowadays offers access to knowledge to everyone. “Archives are not just a responsibility. They are also a right ” (Jean Favier).

Photo: Stephane Chalmeau, courtesy of Ibos et Vitart

© Ibos & Vitart . Published on January 24, 2007.

Thus the archives have become a symbol of collective identity.

Photo: Stephane Chalmeau, courtesy of Ibos et Vitart

© Ibos & Vitart . Published on January 24, 2007.

To encourage citizens to think, to remind them of their rights, but also to emphasise their heritage, from now on the Archives adress to a wider public. Exhibitions, lectures, training workshops, have given them the status of a public amenity. Functions of a radically different nature now coexist within a single entity.

Photo: Stephane Chalmeau, courtesy of Ibos et Vitart

© Ibos & Vitart . Published on January 24, 2007.

Information and distribution to a broader public call for open and flexible spaces.

Photo: Stephane Chalmeau, courtesy of Ibos et Vitart

© Ibos & Vitart . Published on January 24, 2007.

On the other hand, the process of storage of the heritage, with its strict technical and scientific requirements, generates highly specialized spaces, which gain value from their content, but must also be protected because of that content.

Image courtesy of Jean-Marc Ibos Myrto Vitart

© Ibos & Vitart . Published on January 24, 2007.

The site, with its gradient and its exposure, allows the Archives to stand out from a long way off.

Image courtesy of Jean-Marc Ibos Myrto Vitart

© Ibos & Vitart . Published on January 24, 2007.

The whole area of the plot is used to match the building to the scale of the landscape in two directions.Horizontally, at ground level, the base is open to the public, whilst the storage building forms a vertical front within the perspective.

Image courtesy of Jean-Marc Ibos Myrto Vitart

© Ibos & Vitart . Published on January 24, 2007.

As well as recalling the past, the Archives also account for it. The building’s role is restricted to a specific period – twenty years of storage and a stock of extra years. It is the future of the past that we care about. The building expresses this future like a potential.

Image courtesy of Jean-Marc Ibos Myrto Vitart

© Ibos & Vitart . Published on January 24, 2007.

Using the site’s maximum capacity from the start, the demanded additional storage capacity is provided by incorporating empty cells into the building, gaps which are revealed by light shining through the dense storage parts.

Image courtesy of Jean-Marc Ibos Myrto Vitart

© Ibos & Vitart . Published on January 24, 2007.

Access to the building is in the continuity of the square, which slides under the trees, cutting broad rings into the earth.

Image courtesy of Jean-Marc Ibos Myrto Vitart

© Ibos & Vitart . Published on January 24, 2007.

The hall stretches out lengthways. It feeds the different public functions laid out transversely on either side of the patios, which sequence expresses the horizontal stratification of the space.

Exhibitions, cafeteria, auditorium, all function synergistically.

The simplicity of the public itinerary is reflected in the requisite efficiency: immediate understanding of the layout of the building, flexible spaces, autonomous access.

The movement of documents is kept completely separate from the flux of people. The empty cells meant for future extensions are shut off by translucent honeycomb panels whose temporary nature, enhanced by the vibration of the coloured light, contrasts with the massiveness of the full cells.

Here then are two sealed, adjacent universes, connected only by the reading room. Contained within this secure space, visitors can see into its transparent extensions.

They can sense the life in the archives by the frequency of the trolleys moving on the walkways above.

They can also distance themselves, concentrate on the document or lose themselves in the infinite reflection of the magnolias in the mirrors.