In architecture, an atrium (Template:Plural form: atria or atriums)<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> is a large open-air or skylight-covered space surrounded by a building.<ref name=dict_atrium>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Atria were a common feature in Ancient Roman dwellings, providing light and ventilation to the interior. Modern atria, as developed in the late 19th and 20th centuries, are often several stories high, with a glazed roof or large windows, and often located immediately beyond a building's main entrance doors (in the lobby).
Atria are a popular design feature because they give their buildings a "feeling of space and light."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The atrium has become a key feature of many buildings in recent years.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Atria are popular with building users, building designers and building developers. Users like atria because they create a dynamic and stimulating interior that provides shelter from the external environment while maintaining a visual link with that environment. Designers enjoy the opportunity to create new types of spaces in buildings, and developers see atria as prestigious amenities that can increase commercial value and appeal.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Ancient atriaEdit
In a domus, a large house in ancient Roman architecture, the atrium was the open central court with enclosed rooms on all sides. In the middle of the atrium was the impluvium, a shallow pool sunken into the floor to catch rainwater from the roof. Some surviving examples are beautifully decorated. The opening in the ceiling above the pool (compluvium) 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. Wealthier houses often included a marble cartibulum, an oblong marble table supported by trapezophoros pedestals depicting mythological creatures like winged griffins.<ref>John J. Dobbins and Pedar W. Foss, The World of Pompeii, Routledge Press, 2007, Template:ISBN</ref> 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. The cylindrical puteal (a wellhead) gave access to the water cistern fed by water seeping through the porous bottom of the overlying impluvium. The atrium contributed to the passive cooling of the house.
The term was also used for a variety of spaces in public and religious buildings, mostly forms of arcaded courtyards, larger versions of the domestic spaces. Byzantine churches were often entered through such a space (as are many mosques, though the term atrium is not usually used to describe Islamic architecture).
19th century: Glazed atriumEdit
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.
- C19 interior 015.jpg
Victoria Hall in Halifax Town Hall, 1863
- Bradbury building LC-DIG-pplot-13725-01403.jpg
Atrium at the center of the Bradbury Building in Los Angeles
Modern-day atriaEdit
Fire control is an important aspect of contemporary atrium design due to criticism that poorly designed atria could allow fire to spread to a building's upper stories more quickly. Another downside to incorporating an atrium is that it typically creates unused vertical space which could otherwise be occupied by additional floors.
One of the main public spaces at Federation Square, in Melbourne, Australia, is called The Atrium and is a street-like space, five 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.
In Nashville, Tennessee, U.S., the Opryland Hotel hosts 4 different large atria, spanning Template:Convert of glass ceiling in total, in the hotel above the gardens of: Delta, Cascades, Garden-Conservatories, and Magnolia.
When it opened in 2019, the Leeza SOHO in Beijing, had the world's tallest atrium at Template:Convert, replacing the previous record-holder, the Burj Al Arab in Dubai.<ref name="Construction Review Online 2019">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The Luxor Hotel, in Las Vegas, Nevada, has the largest atrium in the world (by volume) at Template:Convert.
GalleryEdit
- One-Bligh Street Sydney.jpg
The atrium of 1 Bligh Street, a Sydney office tower, looking upwards
- Shanghai Grand Hyatt Atrium.jpg
Looking up inside the 32-story atrium of the Shanghai Grand Hyatt, part of the Jin Mao Building
- New York State Theater atrium by David Shankbone.jpg
Atrium of the New York State Theater at Lincoln Center
- VirgoPiazza.JPG
The Grand Piazza atrium inside the SuperStar Virgo
- Gould Court atrium at the College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Washington.jpg
Four floor atrium of Gould Hall, College of Built Environments, at the University of Washington
- Grand Doubletree east atrium up.jpg
The Grand Doubletree hotel/condo in Downtown Miami 42 story atrium
- Complexe Desjardins, Grande Place 2005-10-22.jpg
Atrium of Complexe Desjardins, Montreal
- Water Tower Place - Glass Elevators.jpg
Multi-floor atrium with three see-through octagonal elevator shafts in Water Tower Place in Chicago
- Piarco International Airport Atrium.jpg
Main atrium of Piarco International Airport
- 200 Public Square atrium.jpg
An atrium exterior of the 200 Public Square building in Downtown Cleveland, Ohio.
- Peabody Essex Museum - Salem, Massachusetts - DSC06782.jpg
Atrium (architecture) Salem, Massachusetts PEM * Peabody Essex Museum