New Buildings of the National Film Archives in Prague
Vladimir OPELA, Ph. D.
e-mail: Vladimir.Opela@nfa.cz
Michal wanner, Ph. D.
Department of Archives Administration and Records Management, The Ministry of the Interior, Prague
e-mail: mwanner@mvcr.cz
New Buildings of the National Film Archives in Prague ABSTRACT
Today the last stage of the implementation of building of the archive site of the National Film Archives begins. It focuses on the construction of the repository for the preservation of color films and written archival records. In addition, the proposal to build a new headquarters of the National Film Archives is ready to implement within the "care of the national treasure" program of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic. The contribution will put these projects in a broader context of the construction of archive buildings in the Czech Republic in the last twenty years and shows the issues associated with the implementation of not only this project.
I nuovi edifici dell'Archivio nazionale del cinema a Praga
SINTESI
Comincia oggi l'ultima fase dell'attuazione della costruzione dell'Archivio nazionale del cinema a Praga. Essa si concentra sulla costruzione del deposito per la conservazione delle pellicole a colori e dei documenti scritti. Inoltre, la proposta di costruire una nuova sede dell'Archivio nazionale del cinema e pronta a essere attuata all'interno della "cura del tesoro nazionale", programma del Ministero della Cultura dela Repubblica Ceca. Il contributo consentira di rilanciare questi progetti in un contesto piu ampio della costruzione di edifici d'archi-vio nella Repubblica Ceca negli ultimi vent'anni e mostra i problemi connessi con l'attuazione non solo di questo progetto.
Nova zgradba Nacionalnega filmskega arhiva v Pragi IZVL^EČEK
Danes se pričenja zadnja faza izgradnje na lokaciji Nacionalnega filmskega arhiva. Gre za skladišče za hrambo barvnih filmov in spisovnega arhivskega^radiva. Poleg tega bo v okviru programa"Skrb za narodne zaklade", ki ga je pripravilo Ministrstvo za kulturo Češke Republike zgrajena nova upravna stavba Nacionalnega filmskega arhiva. Prispevek predstavlja te projekte v širšem kontekstu izgradnje arhivskih zgradb v Češki Republiki v zadnjih dvajsetih letih in prikazuje teme povezane z uvajanjem tudi drugih projektov.
Nove budovy Narodniho filmoveho archivu v Praze A^BSTRA^T
Prispevek je tvoren dvema častmi. V prvni Michal Wanner rekapituluje vyvoj archivnich budov v Česke repu-blice v uplynulych dvou desetiletich. Konstatuje, že v tomto obdobi bylo zprovozneno celkem 60 budov stat-nich a mestskych archivu. V letech po padu totalitniho systemu tak bylo dohnano zpoždeni, ktere existovalo v zabezpečeni archivu v predchozim obdobi. Autor popisuje zakladni principy, nejvyznamnejši archivni budovy a podava prehled vyznačnych pozitivnich i negativnich zkušenosti z teto vystavby. Ve druhe časti Vladimir Opela, byvaly reditel Narodniho filmoveho archivu v Praze (dle jen NFA) liči vyvoj uložnych podminek tohoto archivu od jeho vzniku po současnost. Podrobneji se zabyva aktualnimi plany na druhou fazi vystavby NFA tvorenou novym depozitarem pro barevne filmy a novym sidlem NFA v Praze. Uvadi technicke a konstrukčni detaily obou budov.
Vladimir OPELA - Michal WANNER: New Buildings of the National Film Archives in Prague, 117-131
Archive buildings in the Czech Republic 1990-2012
This paper is devoted to the currently most important event concerning archive buildings in the Czech Repub ic, namely the construction of the new buildings for the National Film Archives. In the context of Czech archives, however, it is not a solitary action. On the very contrary, the last two decades were marked by intensive activities in the field of construction of all types of archives, differing in the focus and nature of archival records stored in their premises. In 1990-2007 period, a total of 60 buildings of state and municipal archives were put into operation. Thus, the lack of archive premises prevailing in the previous period was made up for in the years following the fall of the totalitarian regime. Such an extensive development was a source of multiple positive as well as negative experience. Let me therefore start with some background information concerning this process that will illustrate its broader context, and follow with sharing a few main positive and negative experiences gained during this development.
Principles and methodology
The general principles governing the construction of archives in the Czech Republic in the monitored years adhered always to the recommendations of the International Council on Archives published in the Archive Buildings and Equipment Handbook by Michel Duchein®. They were supplemented by a number of theoretical studies and information published by Czech archivists based on their knowledge acquired during their trips abroad and studies of relevant technical literature1. The key role of methodological guidelines in the construction and reconstruction of individual premises was played by the guide called The Collection of Type Projects - State Regional Archives and The Typology of Buildings - State District Archives published by the Department of Archives Administration of the Ministry of the Interior in 1993 and 19942. Thanks to this manual the construction of archives in the Czech Republic could draw on more than 50 years of experience in this field abroad. At the beginning of 1994, the Commission for the Construction and Reconstruction of Archive Buildings was set up at the Ministry of Interior as a technical body and ever since it has played an important role both with respect to the process of reasoning and initialising the developments, expert evaluation of individual projects and application of the re^rred to principles in practice.
Archive buildings
In the period concerned, 7 state archives (including 72 state district archives) and 5 large municipal archives constructed a total of 60 buildings. Altogether 23 new archive buildings were built. So far the highlight among these activities has been the construction of the new building for the Moravian Provincial Archives in Brno opened in October 2007. The three largest new buildings - archive buil-
1.	Michel DucHEiN, Archive Buildings and Equipment, 2nd ed., ICA Handbooks, K. G. Saur 1988, p. 232.
2.	Synthetic literature as well as titles to here mentioned archival buildings: Vaclav Babička, Üstfedni archiv českeho
statu, jeho dejiny a umtstent, Praha 2001, pp. 5-15; Vladimir Czumalo, Archiv mezi typem, mistem, jazykem a krdsou (Stdtni okresni archiv Semily), „Architekt", 24(1995); Vladimir Hornych, Archivnt aredl Praha-Chodovec, „Stavba", 6(1995), pp. 22-27; Rene Gorny [a others], CFD-model soldrnt energeticke fasddy a jeho vyuzitt pro vjpočet provoznich stavü fasddy, In Sborntkpftspevkü konference Klimatizace a vetrdnt 2002, SPTP 2002, pp. 43-49; Borivoj Indra, Vystavba budov okresntch archivü, „AČ", 1994, pp. 151-155; Borivoj Indra, Klimatizace ano či ne?, „AČ", 1995, pp. 50-53; Borivoj Indra, Novy okresni archiv v Pfibrami - komplexnt fešent, „AČ", 1997, pp. 95-96; Borivoj Indra, Neue Archivgebäude in der Tschechischen Republik (Archivnt aredl Praha), „Der Archivar, Mitteilungsblatt für deutsches Archivwessen", 1999, n.
4, pp. 355-357; Borivoj Indra, Der Neubau der staatlichen Archive in Prag, „Archivalische Zeitschrift", 84(2001), pp. 175-204; Borivoj Ondra - Vladimira Hradecka, Novd archivni budova v Praze, „SSH", 26(2001); Borivoj Indra, Archivnt novostavby aproblemyprovoznich ndkladü, „AČ", 2002, p. 13; Borivoj Indra, Vystavba archivntch budov v^ Česke republice, Praha 2004, 198 p.; Tomaš Kalina, Archivni budovy jako informačni pracovište, In Zpravodajpobočky ČSVTS pfi SUA 32, 1987, pp. 1-93; Tomaš Kalina, K učelnosti adaptace historickych objektüpro archivni učely, „AČ", 1981, pp. 20-47; Tomaš Kalina, Novostavba Stdtniho ustfedniho archivu a Stdtniho oblastniho archivu v Praze-Chodovci, In Stdtni üstfedni archiv a jeho stdla, Praha 2001, pp. 23-29; Vlastimil Kolda, Stdtni okresni archiv Česke Budejovice, obrazovy soubor k otevfent nove budovy, Česke Budejovice 1996; Emil Kordiovsky [a kol.], Stdtni okresni archiv Bfeclav se sidlem v Mikulove, 2001, 36 p.; Moravsky zemsky archiv v Brne. Pametni kniha k otevfent novostavby, Brno 2007, 116 p.; Martin Petrovka, Pfesnd klimatizace, proč a kam?, In Sborntk pftspevkü konference Klimatizace a vetrdni 2002, SPTP 2002, pp. 190-196; Blažena Przybylova, Archiv mesta Ostravy v novem, „AČ", 1998, pp. 33-36; Daša Seberova, Vystavba a rekon-strukce archivntch budov stdtntch okresntch archivü na severni Morave a ve Slezsku (Statni okresni archivy Frydek-Mistek, Jesenik, Karvina, Olomouc, Prerov, Šumperk, Vsetin), „AČ", 1997, pp. 19-22; Ivo ŠuLC, Novostavba Stdtniho okresntho archivu v Chrudimi, Chrudim 1999, pp. 27-29; Vlašana Ludmila, Archivni aredl v Praze 4-Chodovci. Současny stav a perspektivy, „AČ", 1995, pp. 205-220; Miloš Zavadil, Vystavba archivnt budovy v Olomouci v letech 1991 až 1995, Slavnostni otevfent budovy archivu v Olomouci, Olomouc 14. 12. 1995.
Vladimir OPELA - Michal WANNER: New Buildings of the National Film Archives in Prague, 117-131
dings in Prague, Olomouc and Česke Budejovice were designed to serve jointly the two state archives. Eight historically valuable buildings - castles and monasteries have been preserved thanks to their reconstruction for archiving purposes. In 29 cases, more or less extensive alterations of the buildings originally built for other purposes have been made. In 11 cases brand new buildings of repositories have been added to the reconstructed older buildings. Several of these buildings have been granted various architecture awards. In the course of the last twenty years, apart from the state and town archives also many buildings intended for the archives of universities, public and private organisations and companies were built.
The most remarkable archive building has become the set of archive buildings of the National Archives in Prague and the State Regional Archives Prague and the Prague City Archives in Prague Chodovec called the Archive Premises. At the International Building Trade Fair FOR ARCH 1995 this building was awarded the honorary prize and the Construction of the Year 1995 title.
The Archive Premises in Prague-Chodovec
Another significant construction is the new building of the Provincial Archives Opava in Olomouc, where also the State District Archives Olomouc is housed. It was designated the first "intelligent building" in this Moravian metropolis. Of similar importance and of larger size is also the new building of the State Regional Archives Trebon in Česke Budejovice, used also for the State District Archives Česke Budejovice, the reconstruction of the building of the State Regional Archives in Zamrsk and the City Archives in Ostrava. The remaining buildings are smaller buildings of state district archives (now the offices of the state regional archives) in individual administrative centres (with storage capacity from 3.865 to 10.000 meters of archival records). Among these buildings the most significant are the buildings in Česke Budejovice, Semily, Benešov, Pribram or Chrudim.
In general, construction of repositories and smaller administrative and operational (service) buildings has been given preference to. The idea of underground repositories was deliberately ruled out when designing the archive buildings. The reason was that such spaces necessitate thorough and costly insulation against soil moisture, permanently installed dehumidifiers and ventilation equipment and lead to higher energy consumption. In case of power supply interruptions the archival records would be at greater risk here than in the above the ground repositories. That is why in majority of buildings the sandwich (multi-layer) walls have been opted to achieve high thermal inertia.
Vladimir OPELA - Michal WANNER: New Buildings of the National Film Archives in Prague, 117-131
The Moravian Provincial Archives in Brno
Past experience
An extensive debate has taken place on the location of archive buildings. The question was whether they should be located in town centres or in the suburbs. There is, however, not a single answer to this question, since both the alternatives have their pros and cons and everything depends on the particular circumstances.
In a number of cases the constructions had to accommodate to specific conditions, taking into account the actual situation at the location and its prior development. In a few cases necessary funds failed to be raised and a solution has been adopted that was from the beginning clearly not optimal in
a long-term perspective. Fully unsatisfactory have proven to be constructions financed from pooled investment funds which facilitate having two or more buildings under a single roof. Following the administrative reform, such concept, however, generates insoluble situations. Today extremely proble-
matic also appear to be many renovations and reconstructions of historical, particularly listed premises that fail to meet the requirements of modern archiving. At some places, after a few years the second stage was implemented, during which an annex or a superstructure was added to the already existing building which helped optimise the situation. Where the capacity of the central premises was insufficient and the location in the historical town centre and other things prevented the extension of the existing premises, branches or repositories have been constructed. Nonetheless, this solution has not always proven ideal for the running of the archive. The best results have been achieved by reconstruction of buildings originally built for a different purpose into operational buildings together with the construction of a new repository. It has also become obvious that each reconstruction is limited by certain dispositions (conflicts of needs of archiving operations and requirements for heritage conservation, necessity of thorough insulation, demanding technical requirements on safeguarding the parameters of inner environment in repositories, difficult separation of individual parts of the operations, problems related to vertical communication etc.). An exception are the reconstructions where only the perimeter walls are left and the inner parts of the building have to be completely rebuilt. In such cases the costs substantially rise and equal or, due to the costs of demolition, exceed the costs of construction of a new building.
Rather than from major conceptual mistakes, the constructions have suffered from problems in their actual implementation. They consisted in inability of archivists to articulate their needs as well as in mistakes made by designers, but most often in poor quality of work of building firms. The role of construction supervision has proven essential since where it was absent or inadequate mistakes were made.
Much experience has been gained as to the orientation of buildings, the necessity to also take into consideration the plans of future urban development, the use of air-conditioning, etc. The archives in the Czech Republic have for a number of years followed the trend of exploiting the natural air ventilation, while the air-conditioning is perceived as only an additional element helping to compensate for extreme climatic conditions or create suitable environment for special materials3.
A major issue seems to the rapid technology and social development of the society and thus also of the community of researchers. While on the one hand, the number of researchers and their needs and thus also the use of archival records considerably grew over the last twenty years, on the other hand the launch of scanning technologies changed the way of making the archival records accessible. Of specific and pivotal importance is the introduction of digital archival records and amendments to legi-ation related to mass implementation of electronic records management, changes in the way the ar-hival records are selected and processed. All these changes are conducive to continuous changes in requirements for the size of spaces devoted to research rooms, operational spaces, file rooms and specialised repositories
In conclusion, probably the most pressing issue is the ever more challenging fundraising that is necessary for the maintenance of installed technologies as well as state-of the-art archive buildings in the world full of economic crises and administrative reforms.
Michal Wanner
3. Čenek Kadlec - Pavel Goš - Borivoj Indra, Sborntk typologickychprojektu — statnt oblastniarchivy, Praha 1993, 92 p.; Jiff V^TÜ - Borivoj Indra, Typologie budov - statni okresnt archivy, Praha 1994, 32 p.
Half Century Long Journey
Film Archive, that was part of the section of Czechoslovak Film Institute, had its film collections deposited in very unsatisfactory places
-	in a tower, a stable, and in vaults of the Gothic castle Kost
-	in the former brick-kiln in Vsetaty Town
-	in a cellar of a former bakery in Prague
-	in the cellars, ground-floor, and 1st floor of a not fully built-up inn in Trebsin (copies and negatives on a highly flammable base/nitrocellulose base)
- in the production premises of FA in Prague
For these premises were overfilled with films, Czechoslovak Film Institute got a one-time Nazi concentration camp's garage in Hradištko pod Mednikem (40 km from Prague) and it adapted it as its vault for films on safe base (capacity 140.000 boxes of 35 mm films).
New film material was deposited there by degrees as well as the films from the above mentioned unsatisfactory places in the frame of running general inventory of film collections. The films on highly flammable base were stocked in the vault in Trebsin (250 tons). The general inventory was ended in 1974 and both vaults were completely overfilled with films. That is why Film Archive, in 1975, suggested to construct a new modern and air-conditioned depository for archival color film material according to the FIAF Recommendation (-5°C, 30% RH). This project was not accepted and FA only received finance to enlarge its current vault's capacity. No construction firm was ready to realize this extension and therefore the FA employees decided to build it up by themselves. That was in 19771979 (capacity 50.000 boxes of 35 mm films). In 1980-1981 they full-ended the reconstruction of the original depository in the way so that it improved the temperature and humidity conditions.
Vladimir OPELA - Michal WANNER: New Buildings of the National Film Archives in Prague, 117-131
In the same way they, by self-help, built in 22 stalls in the Trebsin vaults (which were originally devided in 5 large scale sections) in 1981-1984, and they secured the installation of air-conditioning (8°C, 40% RH).
The new government, in 1990, adopted FA's proposal on new depositories of the archive in Hradištko. The 1st phase was ended in 1992:
-	construction of depositories for b&w negatives and duplicate copies
-	construction of depositories for non-film material collection (posters, promotional material, stills, text documents)
-	construction of depositories for library collection
-	construction of a new management premises building.
Vladimir OPELA - Michal WANNER: New Buildings of the National Film Archives in Prague, 117-131
^e 2nd phase should follow - construction of depositories for color film material which already had building permission, but the Ministry of Culture of Czech Republic didn't provide finance for this 2nd phase.
^e NFA came into being by transformation of Czechoslovak Film Institute on 1.7.1992, as the youngest national institution in Czech Republic.
The Czech Government adopted a program Care for National Treasure in 2007 to support national heritage institution. Two constructions for National Film Archive were admitted;
1.	Depository for color film material
2.	National Film Archive seat in Prague
Depository for color film material
The planned building has four floors, two subterranean, two above-ground ones. The centre of the building is depositories for color film material preservation (13 m x 69 m). These are situated in two subterranean and one over-ground floor. They are divided in four sections and fit with compact shelves. Stocking of the film material from and into the depository is lead over air-conditioning area. The depositories of large posters of contemporary documentation and the depository of library are placed on the 2nd floor.
On the western side of the building there are archive places of work (cut/editing rooms, workplace for periodical control, photo studio, photographical laboratory, digital laboratory, server, safe deposit room, film material cleaner machine, a few help-depositories and technical workplace, library and written archivalia workplace).
On the 1st subterranean floor there's boiler room and engine room for air-conditioning, transformer station, garages, and other service help-places.
On the southern side of the building there are public relations places: foyer, security workplace, receipt-delivery of material, video editing-room, cut-room, multimedia research room, conference rooms, and sanitary facility. The whole building is wheelchair accessible (barrier-free).
The building is surveyed by permanent security service, including technical means (electrical fire-prevention signalization, close TV circuit, electronical entry control system, cca 200 alarm detectors).
Vladimir OPELA - Michal WANNER: New Buildings of the National Film Archives in Prague, 117-131
1.820 m^
2.944 m^
1.820 m^ 21.500 m^
432.388 boxes of 35 mm films 6.000.000 €
Other specifications:
built-up grounds utility grounds: vaults other
surround grounds 1 elevator, 2 main stairways Vault capacity for color film material Construction costs cca
NFA Seat construction in Prague
National Film Archive is the youngest national cultural institution. At the same time it is one of the oldest film archives in the world and, considering its scope and collection quality, it counts among ten of the most significant film archives in the world.
In the present the NFA workplaces are situated in 5 hired localities in Prague. The aim of the construction is to centralize them in one joint centre that enables NFA to extend its activities.
The project of National Film Archive's new building (the project was worked out by Engineer Architect Kotik, Omikron-K) has 1 basement and 4 floors. It is designed in the way that the public relations rooms are separated from the places off-limits for public so that it wouldn't come to intermingling of people with archival material movement.
Vladimir OPELA - Michal WANNER: New Buildings of the National Film Archives in Prague, 117-131
Basement
Technical equipment of the building is situated there (air-conditioning engine room, control room, sanitary services, library depository, and portal of Czechoslovak film)
Ground floor_
Elemental part of NFA activities intended for public: reception, 2 cinema halls (40 and 120 seats), they enable screening of films (inclusive nitrocellulose ones) and new media, gallery and conference hall, sale-shop (publications, multimedia), small cafe.
On this floor there are also situated workplaces for communication with professional film public (program workplaces, film dispatch, cut-rooms). In the western part of the building (not accessible for public) there are film restoration places.
Vladimir OPELA - Michal WANNER: New Buildings of the National Film Archives in Prague, 117-131
1st floor
On this level services of specialized film library and department of written archivalia for public are centralized: reading-room (books, magazines, and periodicals), intranet and internet, multimedia study (video-audio), researchers' room (written archivalia).
In the places not accessible for public there is the specialized library workplace and Film Review redaction.
Vladimir OPELA - Michal WANNER: New Buildings of the National Film Archives in Prague, 117-131
Dpt.
2nd floor
NFA management centre, Economical Dpt., Film Historians Dpt., ^eory and Film History rd floor
It is reserved for Technical Dpt., IT Dpt., Written Archivalia Dpt., including Digital Laboratory, Photo Laboratory, and Recording Studio.
An open-air cinema for summer night's screenings will be in the amphitheatre.
Other specifications:
Lot size	3.995 m^
Built-up grounds	1.610 m^
Utility grounds	3.100 m^
Surround grounds	26.529 m^
Construction costs cca	12.000.000 €
The construction and location decision has been issued.
Vladimir Opela
Vladimir OPELA - Michal WANNER: New Buildings of the National Film Archives in Prague, 117-131
SUMMARY
^e paper is composed of two parts. M. Wanner summarizes in the first one the progress in the construction of archive buildings in the Czech Republic in the last twenty years. He states that a total of 60 archival buildings were constructed or reconstructed in this period. So after the fall of the totalitarian regime the deficit, which ruled the area in previous years, was caught up. Author describes principles adopted prior to the construction, as well as Czech and foreign literature which were base for the construction. He describes the most important buildings - Archive estates in Prague, Moravian Provincial Archives in Brno etc. ^is process was source of the lot of positive as well as negative experience. ^e largest one now recognized is the art to maintain these archive buildings with all modern equipment in a world full of changing economic conditions and administrative reforms. In the second part written by V. Opela, former director of the National Film Archives in Prague (hereinafter NFA), an overview of the development of storage conditions of the archives since its inception to the present is provided. He notes the significant progress was made in the early nineties of 20th century with the emergence of specialized depository for b/w films and film documentation. At present the construction of specialized depository for color films and NFA new headquarters in Prague are realized. Author describes in detail the technical and functional characteristics of these new buildings.
Original scientific article Submitting date: 30.03.2012 Acceptance date: 30.06.2012