Natural conditioning for the national archive building. Studies for a low energy retrofit

The Argentine national archives, to be rehoused in a specially refurbished building, require strict air quality conditions to protect this valuable collection of documents. This paper presents the environmental requirements and the design concepts that were incorporated in the architectural project. The double skin with super insulation and high inertia achieves a notable reduction in the installed air-conditioning capacity and projected energy consumption as well as providing a high degree of natural protection in the case of a failure of the conventional energy supply. The paper emphasizes the importance of building design for low energy architecture.