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The British Film Institute has opened bids on a £9.5 million contract to build a new master film store for its archive sites at Gaydon in Warwickshire (UK).

The British Film Institute is planning to have a new archive built. It will be 2,700 sq m large and constructed primarily of pre-cast concrete. Its purpose is the storage of master film collections containing acetate and nitrate film.

The building will be equipped with a combination of mobile and static racking and provide controlled storage conditions at -5 degree Celsius.

Construction of the cold storage unit is supposed to start in early summer 2010 and should be accomplished by autumn 2011. The British Film Institute would like to have the facility fully functioning by then.

Between four and eight firms will be invited to tender for the job on 12 February. Contractors have until 14 January to submit pre-qualification questionnaires.

With regards to cold storage units, ammonia as a refrigerant can prove particularly fit-for-purpose due to its high energy efficiency in low temperatures. On top of that, ammonia offers very interesting environmental credentials because it has no impact on the ozone layer and has no global warming effect.