The building currently housing the Historical Archives of the City of Turin was built in 1929-1930 and at that time meant for the Demographic Services, or General Register Office. Following the transfer of the latter to new quarters in Via della Consolata, the City of Turin decided to house the Historical Archives here, after a fitting restoration and rebuilding programme begun in September 1995 and completed in March 1998. The building structure was consolidated and strengthened, divided into sectors and made fireproof, while suitable areas for public use and offices were created. The whole building covers an area of 5,300 square metres distributed over one floor below ground and three above. The heavyweight and lightweight storerooms are situated in the basement and partly on the ground floor and the documents here are conserved partly on sliding shelves and partly in electro-mechanical archives. The rest of the ground floor has areas for the public while the offices are on the first and second floors. The meeting and conference room is also on the first floor while the photographic library, photographic studio and the laboratories for bookbinding, restoration and microfilming are all on the second. The heavyweight and lightweight storerooms, the exhibition gallery and the reading room for consulting rare documents are all equipped with air-filter systems and temperature and humidity controlling and regulating systems. The photographic library is also air-conditioned. The whole building is equipped with a modern fireproof system and efficient burglar alarms and video surveillance, both internally and externally.