Research On The Development Of Contemporary Archives Building Design

China’s rapid social and economic progress leads to the development of various types of public buildings across the country.Archive as a key type of civil architecture for both central and local governments has drawn great attention at all levels.After decades of progress,the archive management is no longer a simple issue about file storage and collection.Neither is it a formitable administration for citizens.Along with the openness of society,fast urbanization,advanced modern technology and the urgency of cultural satisfaction,archive has switched itself from the system of simple collection to fully operated information centre.Therefore,the current specifications for designing archives would not meet with update functional requirements.So it is urgent and important to proceed the architectural study of contemporary archives.Based on the theoretical and practical study of domestic and foreign archives management and development,this writing analyzes the design and functional requirements of contemporary archive.It combines examples of spatial requirements and functions of archives in order to deliver a systematic criteria upon archive design.It would provide reliable reference according to yearly observation of archive design practice.This study consists of three parts.Part I examines the development of archive and analyze the current mainstream research on its functional requirements.The second part focuses on the three major functional components of archives through the close observation of a series of recent cases.It sums up the basic requirements of designing each functional space.The author maintains that a new concept of "green archive” yields significance of constructional methods and technical support in light of future life cycle and low-carbon construction guidelines,for which it deserves much attention in this research.The third part provides a comprehensive analysis of the engineering practice of archive design that the author participated in recent years.It incorporates the discussion and research of Part II by reviewing and moderating the evolutionary process of traditional archives.The final disscusion concludes the methodology of making archives by providing both design references and criticism to its future.