Precious books and manuscripts dating back nearly 1,000 years will be protected in controlled environmental conditions courtesy of high efficiency Carrier AquaSnap chillers and heat pumps in a new world-class library at Lambeth Palace, home of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
The new building, currently under construction within the grounds of Lambeth Palace on the South Bank of the River Thames, will house the priceless collection comprising over 4,600 manuscripts and 200,000 printed books stretching back to the 9th Century. They document over 1,000 years of ecclesiastical and cultural life of the Church of England and Great Britain, including the Gutenberg Bible with English illumination, which is believed to be the first printed book to arrive to England, as well as Elizabeth I’s own prayer book.
The current storage conditions for the archive are less than ideal, and the new purpose-built library has been designed to the highest architectural and environmental standards to ensure the fragile collection is conserved for future generations.
The building and its services are designed to protect the archives from changes in humidity, temperature, air pollution and flood risk. The design for the environmental control solution, produced by engineering firm Max Fordham, had to address the needs of two principal zones within the building – archive storage facilities and areas occupied by people on a daily basis.
Conditions for archive storage areas follow the recommendations of PD 5454, Guide for the Storage and Exhibition of Archival Materials, which requires a temperature of 8C during winter and 18 degrees in summer, with a Relative Humidity (RH) of 45 per cent. These conditions will be maintained as far as possible using a passive approach, with high levels of insulation and thermal inertia provided by the building fabric. Conditions will be constantly monitored and if they begin to drift outside pre-set limits, the HVAC equipment will be used to maintain temperatures and humidity levels.
