Foundation stone of the new building of the national archives of france in pierrefitte-sur-seine, by Studio Fuksas

The building will consist of:
– A large volume, a monolith carved from the inside, aluminum foil that will contain archives.
– Glass satellites suspended over water basins reflecting light and its changes, and will contain offices and cultural services.
The two buildings will be connected together via bridges.
With the device, which requires the commission use 1% of construction costs for the implementation of one or more works of art, Antony Gormley, Pascal Convert and Susanna Fritscher create three art works for the archives national.

National archives
a democratic institution at the service of the collective memory
Created during the French Revolution, the National Archives hold documents of political regimes from the seventh century onwards, in addition to private archives and the minutes of the notaries in Paris.
True instrument of democracy, the national archives are open to all citizens and researchers who need to consult the public records: These documents, some symbolize the most important stages of french history: the papyri Merovingian, the processes of the Templars, the diary of Louis xvi, the head of Napoleon, the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen, the oath of the Jeu de Paume, the different constitutions of France… 300 km of archives, about 10,000 readers every year…
Collect, store, communicate and explain their content are the duties of the national archives.

The new site opening in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine in 2013 represents a milestone in the evolution and change of the information system, all documents that will be transferred will be microfilmed and will offer a sophisticated system of informatic record keeping for those who consult them.

History project
The saturation of sites of national archives and the difficulty of access the national and international community of researchers and archivists had complained has necessitated the construction of a new home.
The choice of Pierrefitte-sur-Seine-sur-Seine, in the so called «petite ceinture» in Paris, meets three key criteria for the viability of a center of Archives:
– Proximity to centers of decision
– Accessibility by public transport
– Proximity to centers of research and teaching.
But there is also a symbolic value: the first documents preserved in the National Archives are papyri Merovingian (seventh century). coming from the Abbey of Saint Denis, which is located near the future building.

In 2004 the ministry of culture and communication – management of the archives-of France has launched an international competition for the construction of new headquarters of the national archives – direction of the archives of France.
On 11 september 2009, Prime Minister François Fillon and Minister of Culture and Communication, Frederic Mitterrand have laid the foundation stone of the new building of the National Archives in Pierrefitte-sur-Seine.
The periphery the one closer to Paris, and the most distant one are both part of the project that French President Nicolas Sarkozy has in mind to integrate center and periphery and give rise to so-called Grand Paris.
The project will gather in one building historical archives from 1790 to today, which will be available on both traditional and digital media.
The work will be delivered in late 2011 and open to the public in 2013.