The management of digital archives is a major challenge for heritage institutions.
Unlike paper archives, digital preservation requires active management (regular format migration, data integrity checks, secure storage, documentation of contexts) to ensure their readability, integrity, and long-term accessibility.
Challenges of Digital Preservation
Obsolescence, Infrastructure and Metadata
Digital preservation involves active management. Key challenges include:
- Obsolescence of formats and software environments: digital files quickly become incompatible, requiring migration or emulation strategies.
- Technological infrastructure: dependence on technical systems requiring constant monitoring, maintenance, and regular integrity checks of the data.
- Metadata: essential for contextualizing, documenting, retrieving, and understanding records, as well as ensuring their provenance and long-term management.
- Dissemination and access: remote access requiring sustainable, secure systems that respect access and usage rights.
Digital Architecture Archives
Specific challenges:
- Technological evolution: since the 1980s, the use of digital tools (CAD, CAAD, BIM) has transformed documentary production and diversified formats and digital environments.
- CAD files: complex structures (layers, multiple versions) making it difficult to identify a reference version and to ensure their preservation.
- BIM files: strong dependence on software environments and linked data (internal and external), posing risks for long-term integrity and readability.
- Other formats (TIFF, JPEG, PDF, PPT): more common, but presenting varying challenges depending on the format, particularly in terms of compression, quality, and metadata.
Digital Preservation System
Reference framework: the OAIS model
The reference model OAIS (ISO 14721:2025) is a standardized conceptual framework designed to organize the management, preservation, and long-term dissemination of digital information. It defines the roles of stakeholders (producers, managers, users), as well as the key functions of an archival system. The model also structures information packages (SIP, AIP, DIP) and the associated flows. Its objective is to ensure the long-term sustainability, integrity, authenticity, and intelligibility of data, regardless of technological changes.
The CA–O–RD project and Open Research Data
The CA–O–RD project (Contemporary Architecture – Open Research Data), supported by the ETH Board and led by the ACM, aims to establish a digital preservation infrastructure for architectural archives, which are increasingly born-digital. In collaboration with ENAC-IT4R, it relies on Archivematica, compliant with the OAIS model, and integrated with Morphé (AtoM), to ensure the ingestion, normalization, preservation, and dissemination of data/metadata, in accordance with FAIR principles.
Our tools: Archivematica + Morphé (AtoM)
Since 2024, the ACM has been deploying Archivematica, an open-source system compliant with the OAIS model, enabling the ingestion, normalization, storage, and dissemination of digital archives.
Combined with the open-source tool Morphé (AtoM) based on ICA standards, it ensures continuity between preservation and access, guaranteeing the integrity, sustainability, and long-term accessibility of digital collections. This AIS supports standardized exchange formats (EAD, EAC-CPF, CSV, SKOS),
Reference
Yonathan Seibt, Études de la prise en charge des archives numériques d’architecture aux Archives de la construction moderne (Acm), Genève : Haute école de gestion de Genève, 2023.
Team
Current team (09/2025–)
ACM-EPFL : Cyril Veillon (director), Kethsana Muong (archivist), Barbara Galimberti (archivist, 09/2025–06/2026) • ENAC-IT4R : Hugo Solleder (research software engineer), Nicolas Dubois (engineer ETS/HES)
Development and implementation team (2023–08/2025)
ACM-EPFL : Salvatore Aprea (director), Yonathan Seibt (archivist 2023–2024), Kethsana Muong (archivist 2025), Barbara Galimberti (archivist) • ENAC-IT4R : Hugo Solleder (research software engineer), Nicolas Dubois (engineer ETS/HES)