Atrium Buildings

The Atrium Comes of Age by Richard Saxon provides a highly detailed guide to atrium building design during the 1980s. Logically organized, it illustrates the key building types; hotels; shopping and leisure developments; office buildings; public buildings and multiple-use structures, in terms of the major design aspects of planning, environment, structure, vertical transport and economics.

How the rise of the large-scale atrium space in the 1970s and ’80s changed the way buildings could be designed, constructed, regulated, and occupied. In the 1970s, a void opened at the heart of architecture. In hotels, offices, public buildings, and commercial centers, the atrium emerged globally to challenge the modernist legacies of form and function, altering the pattern and experience of cities. While often appearing at vast scale and to striking effect, the atrium also became omnipresent and mundane. In this lively critique, Charles Rice charts the atrium’s appearance in the 1970s and its development through the 1980s, as it accompanied profound shifts in the discipline and practice of architecture. During this period, architectural practice especially in the United States and United Kingdom was changing rapidly, due in part to the manifold effects of deregulation. All aspects of the way buildings were designed, developed, regulated, built, managed, and occupied were being reshaped. A practice guided by the progressive tenets of modernism was being turned into a professional service fully integrated within neoliberal social and economic imperatives. As Rice shows, the atrium gives this story a distinct spatial and material figure, one that offers an inside view of architecture in transformation.

Now more than ever, architects need an interpretive guide to understand how the building code affects the early design of specific projects. This easy-to-use, illustrative guide is part of a new series covering building codes based on the International Building Code for 2006. This book presents the complex code issues inherent to elementary and secondary school design in a clear, easily understandable format.

Buildings influence people. They account for one third of energy consumption across the globe and represent an annual capital expenditure of 7%-10% of GNP in industrialized countries. Their lifetime operation costs can exceed capital investment. Building Engineering aims to make buildings more efficient, safe and economical. One branch of this discipline, Building Physics/Science, has gained prominence, with a heightened awareness of such phenomena as sick buildings, the energy crisis and sustainability, and considering the performance of buildings in terms of climatic loads and indoor conditions. The book reflects the advanced level and high quality of research which Building Engineering, and Building Physics/Science in particular, have reached at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It will be a valuable resource to: engineers, architects, building scientists, consultants on the building envelope, researchers and graduate students.

Now more than ever, architects need an interpretive guide to understand how the building code affects the early design of specific projects. This easy-to-use, illustrative guide is part of a new series covering building codes based on the International Building Code for 2006. This book presents the complex code issues inherent to healthcare facility design in a clear, easily understandable format.