On this project, one of the most important design decisions was taken at the start of the design process during the competition phase in 2007. The program was archive space for the storage of important government papers, together with the necessary office working space. Due to the hygroscopic nature of paper, constant internal environmental conditions must be maintained in order to prevent damage to the documents (especially harmful are rapid fluctuations in relative humidity) and thus this type of building is usually fully air conditioned. An old corn storage building was located on the site and was to be preserved. In initial discussions within the design team we considered daylighting requirements for the work spaces and the possibility of enlarging the relatively small windows. However, very early on, we decided on the following radical approach: close up all the windows in the existing corn storage building on the site, use this building as the archive and provide the working spaces for the employees in a new office building alongside this. In effect, the approach was to separate completely the two functions of document storage and office working, thus altering the conventional organizational structure. By removing the external thermal loads via the windows and the internal thermal loads by providing no working spaces in the archive facility itself, so that people only enter through air locks to collect or return the documents, it was possible to maintain the necessary stable environmental conditions in the archive with help of the exposed thermal mass of the structure and with minimum energy input and technical systems. The necessary thermal conditioning is achieved largely by passive measures.