Thoughts on a Passive Archive
Image by outoforder2day via Flickr
If you could design a vault/archive to last the ages, how would you do it?
Criteria:
- Must be able to hold a large Book/Record/Curio/Gun collection
- Must be inexpensive to maintain
- Must be secure
- Must be able to last for a 2 week length of time without power
- Designed for Upstate New York (cold winters, warm summers, medium humidity)
- Passive design elements are critical to 2, 3, and 4
- Humidity must be controlled
- Stability of temperature seems to be key
- Could be attached to or part of an existing structure or complex.
It would seem that an underground vault would have the advantage of temperature stability, but due to high water tables this is out. That temperature stability could be tapped with a geo-thermal heat-pipe system though. A geo-thermal system like this would require some power to keep the thermal medium flowing in the piping so alternate power becomes desireable. Further, having a large thermal mass to act as a temperature buffer should power systems fail is a solid idea, so the building should be made of thick stone or concrete walls. Now a big question that I still haven't found an answer to; how do you passively control humidity in such a structure? Sure the problem is minimized by temperature stability and reduced airflow in/out of the building, and I suppose you could use desiccants as buffers or run dehumidifiers via alternative energy, but is there a more elegant solution?
Some useful links:
www.getty.edu/conservation/science/climate/paper_toledo.pdf
www.padfield.org/tim/cfys/musdes/musdes.pdf
www.calintec.com/uploads/Passive_Storage.pdf
www.natmus.dk/cons/tp/arnemag/arnemagn1.pdf
www.padfield.org/tim/cfys/ppubs/getty_tenerife_tp2007.pdf
www.library.cornell.edu/librarypreservation/meolda/management/passiveclimatecontrol.html
www.padfield.org/tim/cfys/mm/shiner/shiner.pdf