DeepStore, a UK-based underground storage company, has created a new, purpose-built, underground storage unit for Foster + Partners, an architecture firm.
The state-of-the-art storage room will house over 30,000 items from the practice’s archive – including architectural drawings and records – 150 metres below ground in Britain’s largest salt mine in Winsford.
Michael Bass, Head of Facilities at Foster + Partners, said: “I am confident the new purpose-built storage unit will be a first-class storage facility for our vast archive of architectural drawings and records.”
Foster + Partners has worked with DeepStore since 2005. The firm was founded by Lord Foster in 1967 and has designed some of the most iconic buildings across the globe, including 30 St Mary Axe (aka ‘The Gherkin’) in London, the Reichstag building in Berlin, Hearst Tower in New York and the Supreme Court building in Singapore.
The unique underground facilities at DeepStore were developed as an alternative use for the space created from mining millions of tons of rock salt at the mine – owned and operated by DeepStore’s parent company, Compass Minerals®. It has the capacity to extract 1.5 million tonnes annually.
Craig Trimby, DeepStore's Head of Sales, said: “We are delighted that Foster + Partners have chosen DeepStore. We have created this new storage room for their archive, from where all stored items can be retrieved at short notice for delivery to the Foster + Partners studio in Battersea, London. The mine has consistent temperature and humidity levels and is also naturally free from ultraviolet light, vermin and flooding, making it the perfect environment for storing the precious archive material.”
