Stay indoors and bask in the sun
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Atriums are a good way of bringing in plenty of light and lending a feeling of spaciousness to buildings.
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Let there be light: Atriums are a good way of bringing natural light into buildings.
The space enclosed by parallel-running buildings on both sides is bathed in sunlight by day. For a library building there is nothing more pleasing than great bursts of light entering every nook and cranny. Serene nature does not stop short at the front door.
EMS Cooperative Library at Kakkanadu, near Kochi, is just a small example of how atriums and traditional courtyards continue to have a powerful hold on the imagination of present-day building designers despite the age-old method of imparting a feeling of light taking on a modern dimension, with new frills, fresh ideas and newer materials.
The EMS Cooperative Library is surrounded by acres of green and imposing trees. And they keep walking into the library building through the tile-roofed atrium around which the halls and reading rooms are arranged.
When you step into the veranda that runs around the halls and reading rooms, you are in direct contact with nature. Sunshine, a water fountain and a feel of the chirpy birds that have made the library garden their haunt.
Shopping malls, public buildings and institutions are increasingly going after the traditional concept of atriums while residential units, especially those that are meant as group housing, are going for more open spaces not simply as a functional arrangement but as a powerful design concept.
Atriums, ever so practical and functional, have been in vogue all through, especially when we take public buildings into consideration.
The impact of the open central space is to be experienced. With coloured roofs and the latest lighting systems, atriums can add entirely new dimensions to interior decoration even as they fulfil their function as the conduit through which serene nature comes into the building space.
Simple concept
It is one of the simplest of architectural concepts but one with a lot of power, says C. P. Sunil, architect with C-Earth about atriums and traditional courtyards.
He says that there is a surefooted move towards creating open spaces in buildings. The momentum has been picking up and promises to persist into the future. More and more commercial buildings are being divided by open spaces that provide extra light and air to the visitors, says another architect in the city.
He said that one of the large shopping complexes coming up in the city would have around 75,000 sq. ft. of open space. The trend towards creating large open space supplements and the practice of providing double or even triple heights in shopping complexes and hotels is gaining ground.
K.A. MARTIN
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