 Looking up inside the 32-story atrium of the Shanghai Grand Hyatt, part of the Jin Mao Building. In architecture, 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 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 stories more quickly. Download high resolution version (1187x960, 514 KB)Bottom-up view of the 32-story atrium in the Shanghai Grand Hyatt inside Jin Mao Building. ...
Download high resolution version (1187x960, 514 KB)Bottom-up view of the 32-story atrium in the Shanghai Grand Hyatt inside Jin Mao Building. ...
The Jin Mao Building or Jin Mao Tower (Chinese: 金茂大厦; pinyin: ; literally Gold Luxuriance Building) is an 88-story landmark skyscraper in the Lujiazui area of the Pudong district of Shanghai, Peoples Republic of China. ...
The Parthenon on top of the Acropolis, Athens, Greece Architecture (from Latin, architectura and ultimately from Greek, αÏχιτεκτων, a master builder, from αÏχι- chief, leader and τεκτων, builder, carpenter) is the art and science of designing buildings and structures. ...
An office is a room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within an organisation with specific duties attached to it (see officer, office-holder, official); the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one...
The Latin word atrium referred to the open central court, from which the enclosed rooms led off, in the type of large ancient Roman house known as a domus. Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ...
The Roman Forum was the central area around which ancient Rome developed. ...
A domus was the form of house in ancient Rome and all the cities of the Empire that rich patrician families owned. ...
The Roman Atrium The atrium originally was the bedroom of the mother of the family in an old Latin household. Hence a bed lectus genialis stood opposite the main entrance. The Romans kept the bed standing as a symbol of the sanctity of marriage (the bride was still placed upon it by the groom as part of the marriage ceremony), but it served only symbolic use.
A further symbol connected with the atrium was the hearth. In early houses the hearth, which all its symbolisms of homeliness, was situated in the atrium the centre of the house and domestic life. But the more classic Roman houses don't have a hearth in the atrium. In fact, it remains unclear where the highly symbolic hearth was thereafter moved.
The impluvium 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.
- atrium tuscanium: This type had no columns. The weight of the ceiling was carried by the rafters. Though expensive to build, it seems to have been the most widespread type of atrium in the Roman house.
- atrium tetrastylum: This type had one column at each corner of the impluvium.
- atrium corinthium: This type was similar to the atrium tetrastylum but had a greater opening in the roof and a greater number of columns.
- atrium displuviatum: The roof actually sloped towards the side walls, so a large amount of rainwater ran off into other outlets than the impluvium.
- atrium testudinatum: This atrium had no opening in the roof at all and was only seen in small, unimportant houses.
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.
See also A court or courtyard is an enclosed area, often a space enclosed by a building that is open to the sky. ...
References - Roth, Leland M (1993). Understanding Architecture: Its Elements History and Meaning, Oxford, UK: Westview Press. ISBN 0-06-430158-3. pp. 520
|
Feeds |
Contact