Archives départementales de l'Aude Marcel Rainaud

Timeline

The Marcel Rainaud Departmental Archives of the Aude have the mission of making the documents and data they preserve accessible to all and of facilitating their re-use.

To do this, they :

-collect the public archives (all the public bodies established in the Aude, notaries' minutes and repertoires, archives of some of the communes received in deposit) or private archives (by donation, deposit or purchase) which constitute the historical memory of the Department; -preserve them in the best possible conditions -classify them for research purposes; -facilitate free access to them for all those who wish to consult them on site or, if necessary, online.

They are also in charge of controlling the conditions of conservation, processing and communication of the archives of local authorities, decentralised State services and public establishments located in the department.

Finally, they can organise various types of activities aimed at a wide range of audiences, with a view to raising awareness of their resources and encouraging their re-use.

Inaugurated in 2003, the building puts into practice, for the first time in an archive programme, an original conservation concept based on successive protective envelopes, nested one inside the other like nesting dolls, all aimed at ensuring optimal thermal and hygrometric regulation. The location of the storage areas at the heart of this system, which prevents them from coming into contact with an external cold wall, also makes it possible to optimise storage capacity by increasing it by 15% compared to the configuration of a traditional shop.

The other emblematic space, the consultation room, which is accessed through the welcoming and protective entrance of the courtyard of honour, enclosed by a stone, concrete and steel portico, expresses several strong wishes: to take advantage of the natural light provided by the exceptional view to the north, towards the Montagne Noire; to structure the volume of the room by the strong presence of materials such as stone (Carcassonne sandstone), or rough concrete in the expression of the framework; and finally, to express, through the furniture, the accessibility to all types of documents for all people.

The spaces reserved for the public were designed to give a feeling of calm and interiority, taking into account, very early on in the design, the problems of acoustic comfort and safety, and giving them technical answers, but also in the choice of interior facing and the treatment of the connections between different materials.

The mixture of these raw materials - concrete, stone, wood, glass, steel - plays on registers of opposition, between hot and cold, smooth and rough, homogeneity and rupture, full and empty, transparency and opacity, and yet a singular harmony emerges which contributes fully to offering its users, beyond a functional facility responding to the fundamental missions assigned to it, a space for meeting and meditation, in direct contact with the territory and its history.

More info and photographs...

https://archivesdepartementales.aude.fr/node/8193

https://archivesdepartementales.aude.fr/inventaires-et-guides-utiliser-les-outils-de-recherche