Sustainable museum storage buildings for long-term preservation

For the long-term preservation of cultural heritage items, all aspects of preventive conservation (climate, light, pollution, safety, etc.) must come together. In a research project with several partner institutions, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, we aim to develop new and sustainable concepts for low-cost but energy-saving, modular museum storage buildings and archives with optimum environmental conditions, starting with an overview of existing buildings and concepts in terms of building type and collection type, as well as environmental strategies the so-called Cologne Model. The environmental conditions in selected storage and archive buildings have been measured and analysed with regard to the current discussion on museum climates, and environmental guidelines. The main aim of the project ist o develop a prototype specification for a new building with a sustainable design. The task ist o develop a general model for storages and archives where the demands of preventive preservation as well as the corresponding building codes of all federal states (in Germany) are incorporated. The focus is on considerations of preventive conservation, consistency of preservation aims, low investment costs and ongoing costs, minimal use of technology, high energy efficiency and, above all, sustainability. In this case, the model is based on the passive energy house and the use of regenerative technologies. All these factors are essential for practical long-term preservation for our collections in depots and archives.