The zip arrived in France after the Second World War. It was imported from the United-States in order to speed up production methods in the context of urban reconstruction in the country. The zip was essential to the profession of architects from the 1960s but disappeared rapidly in the 1990s with the popularisation of computers in architects‘ agencies.

The zip is a product composed of a colored surface  or design, printed with ink, on a transparent plastic support. It is covered on one side by a layer of adhesive, enabling a substantial gain of time to add texture to large surfaces. The zip can be viewed  in national collections where its state of conservation remains a concern.

The lack of written material available led us to conduct a pluridisiplinary project  aiming to cover the widest range of research tracks possible : historical, technical, material, etc.  A complete evaluation  of several collections and documentation resources provided by our partners on both sides of the Atlantic was undertaken, while, in parallel, detailed characterization work was carried out on samples of 420 unused stock, coming from Fine Arts suppliers.

From January 2018, and for a 2-year period, the project  is supported by the Fondation des Sciences du Patrimoine ((Foundation for Cultural Heritage Sciences). 

This new step concerns crossing the collected data over the last few years. This work will provide a better understanding of the degradations examined and will help in defining specific conservation treartments.