The Story at Mount Oswald, Durham - Built environment & passive storage

Built environment & passive storage

The Story at Mount Oswald, Durham

Mount Oswald Manor House, a Grade II listed building, has been converted into The Story, a facility designed to showcase the history of the county and its people. In the construction of the service, The Story implemented low carbon measures on the one hand, and a passive ethos to the construction of the archive storage repositories on the other.

The facility brings together five historic collections, making them available both online and in-person, and providing a comprehensive record of local life. Additionally, The Story now permanently houses the entire DLI Collection, reuniting it with the DLI Archive for the first time since 1998. Both the collection and archive are stored, managed, and curated on-site.

Part of this development included the creation of passive storage conditions to house the collections and implement low-carbon measures at The Story.

Part-funded by the ERDF and supported by Northern Powerhouse, the annual power saving equivalent of these measures roughly equates that used by 50 homes.

Passive principles implemented by The Story in line with BS 16893:2018

• Most collections can be stored in in environments that change gradually over an annual cycle,

and this can be achieved via passive means

• Super insulated building structure ensures temperature/environment inside is not

substantially influenced by conditions outside

• Air-tight spaces with low air exchange

• Independent AHU and desiccant dehumidification control to each strongroom

• Storage environments custodian controlled not led by BMS sensors with dataloggers in boxes

and spaces to monitor repositories

• Ultimate ambition is that AHU and desiccant intervention is not required for years at a time

Source: The Story (thestorydurham.org) and The Story - This is Durham

Mount Oswald Manor House, a Grade II listed building, has been converted into The Story, a facility designed to showcase the history of the county and its people.