Siège de la Documentation française, Former match factory in Aubervilliers, France

The Siège de la Documentation française is a former match factory complex on Henri-Barbusse Street, made up of metal structures and multicolored brick facades. The site now holds administrative offices while retaining industrial elements from its manufacturing past.

A match factory was built on the site in 1867 for Dame Lequin, known as Delabarre, after a commodo et incommodo inquiry. The 1872 state monopoly turned the firm into the Compagnie générale des allumettes chimiques in 1874, then placed it under the Direction générale des Manufactures d'État in 1890. In 1902 the plant was rebuilt to house Sévène and Cahen continuous-production machines, and the chimney was erected at that time. It was decommissioned in 1962.

The site's name comes from the Documentation française, the state documentation body that took over the disused factory in 1967 and installed its headquarters here in 1997 in a new facade building by architects François Leclercq and Fabrice Dusapin. Since 2015 the building has also housed the restorers' department of the Institut national du patrimoine. The old brick walls carry the inscription "USINE MODÈLE DE LA NATIONALE".

The site is at 124 rue Henri-Barbusse in Aubervilliers, at the lieu-dit la Motte; the street was called rue du Vivier before 1945. The 45-metre brick chimney, listed as a monument historique since April 2005, rises behind the buildings and is the element to look for from the street. The premises now house the Documentation française and the Institut national du patrimoine, so the interior is not open as a museum.

The 45-metre chimney, built around 1902 when the factory was rebuilt for Sévène and Cahen continuous-production machines, weighs 1,200 tonnes and mixes brick, millstone and dressed stone. It has been protected as a monument historique since April 2005.