ABSTRACT
Atria, in the form of grand entrances, courtyards and sheltered semi-public areas, have been around for about 2000 years (Saxon, 1983). Iron and glass technology of the industrial revolution in the nineteenth century led to the covering of large courtyards, achieving significant improvements to the indoor climate, and this concept of the atrium as a social hub led to its widespread use in taller public buildings in the late nineteenth century. An essential feature of early tall buildings in New York and Chicago, atria enabled natural lighting and ventilation and drew away fumes from oiland gas-fired lamps. Despite the use of atria in buildings in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (albeit that this use was quite conservative), by the First World War the development of this concept had declined to a halt (Saxon, 1983).
