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Atrium (architecture)

 
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Atrium (architecture)
 
 
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In modern architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
, an atrium (plural atria) is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within an office building
Office

An office is generally a room or other area in which people employment, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty....
 and usually located immediately beyond the main entrance doors. Atria are popular with companies because they give their buildings "a feeling of space and light", but have been criticised by fire inspectors as they could allow fire to spread to a building's upper storeys more quickly.

Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 word atrium referred to the open central court, from which the enclosed rooms led off, in the type of large ancient Roman
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
 house known as a domus
Domus

A domus was the form of house that wealthy and some middle class families owned in ancient Rome and could be found in almost all the major cities of the Roman Empire....
.

The impluvium
Impluvium

The impluvium is the sunken part of the Atrium in a Greek or Roman house . Designed to carry away the rainwater coming through the compluvium of the roof, it is usually made of marble and placed about 30 cm below the floor of the atrium....
 was the shallow pool sunken into the floor to catch the rainwater.






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Encyclopedia


In modern architecture
Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
, an atrium (plural atria) is a large open space, often several stories high and having a glazed roof and/or large windows, often situated within an office building
Office

An office is generally a room or other area in which people employment, but may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it ; the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty....
 and usually located immediately beyond the main entrance doors. Atria are popular with companies because they give their buildings "a feeling of space and light", but have been criticised by fire inspectors as they could allow fire to spread to a building's upper storeys more quickly.

History

The Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 word atrium referred to the open central court, from which the enclosed rooms led off, in the type of large ancient Roman
Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC....
 house known as a domus
Domus

A domus was the form of house that wealthy and some middle class families owned in ancient Rome and could be found in almost all the major cities of the Roman Empire....
.

The impluvium
Impluvium

The impluvium is the sunken part of the Atrium in a Greek or Roman house . Designed to carry away the rainwater coming through the compluvium of the roof, it is usually made of marble and placed about 30 cm below the floor of the atrium....
 was the shallow pool sunken into the floor to catch the rainwater. Some surviving examples are beautifully decorated. The opening in the ceiling above the pool called for some means of support for the roof. And it is here where one differentiates between five different styles of atrium.

As the centrepiece of the house the atrium was the most lavishly furnished room. Also it contained the little chapel to the ancestral spirits (lararium), the household safe (arca) and sometimes a bust of the master of the house.

Tallest atrium

As of 2007, Dubai
Dubai

Dubai is one of the seven Emirates of the United Arab Emirates and the most populous city of the United Arab Emirates . It is located along the southern coast of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula....
's Burj Al Arab, has the tallest atrium. The Burj Al Arab was built to impress and to iconize the urban development in the city of Dubai, and currently it is considered to be the most significant landmark of the city.

Largest atrium

The Luxor Hotel
Luxor Hotel

The Luxor Las Vegas is a hotel and casino located on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada. It was one of the city's first fully-themed megaresorts....
 has the largest atrium in the world at 29 million cubic feet (820,000 m³).

Glazed atrium

The 19th century brought the industrial revolution with great advances in iron and glass manufacturing techniques. Courtyards could then have horizontal glazing overhead, eliminating some of the weather elements from the space and giving birth to the modern atrium.

One of the main public spaces at Federation Square
Federation Square

Federation Square is a cultural precinct in the city of Melbourne, Australia. It comprises a series of buildings containing a public broadcaster, art galleries, a museum, cinemas, exhibition spaces, auditoria, restaurants, bars and shops around two major public spaces, one covered , the other open to the sky, and composed of two spaces that...
, Melbourne
Melbourne

Melbourne is the more common name for the geographic region and Census in Australia of the Greater Melbourne metropolitan area. It is the second List of cities in Australia by population in Australia, with a population of approximately 3.8 million and serves as the List of Australian capital cities of Victoria ....
, Australia is called The Atrium and is a street-like space, 5-stories high with glazed walls and roof. The structure and glazing pattern follow the system of fractals used to arrange the panels on the rest of the facades at Federation Square.

Examples of modern-day atria


See also

  • Courtyard
    Courtyard

    For alternative meanings of the word "court", see: Court .A court or courtyard is an enclosed area, often a space enclosed by a building that is open to the sky....
  • Quadrangle
    Quadrangle (architecture)

    In architecture, a quadrangle is a space or courtyard, usually rectangular in plan, the sides of which are entirely or mainly occupied by parts of a large building....