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6 Atriums That Inspire Calm, Breezy Living

This architectural element creates an indoor-outdoor connection from within the house, ensuring that the interiors stay bright and airy

Aditi Sharma Maheshwari
Aditi Sharma Maheshwari6 August 2017
Blogger, dog mom
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Traditionally, an atrium was a room or courtyard that was open to the sky at the centre, creating an open-air, sky-lit space that would link the inside of the home to the outside, keeping the house ventilated and cool at all times. These spaces could be accentuated with fountains, plants or pools that aided in cooling down the interiors. In its modern adaptations, the atrium now can also be glazed on the the top to seal off the atrium from harsh weather or to maintain temperature control.

Here’s a look at some modern-day examples of beautiful atriums.
Shamanth Patil Photography
1. In the centre of this Belgaum house by Anahata Architects is a lush green atrium. The indoor garden patch is surrounded by stone flooring, set slightly lower than the rest of the ground floor area. Two storeys above it is the skylight that allows ample sunlight to stream in. The architects say that the skylight is designed in a way that the shadows formed reinterpret the patterns of artist S.H. Raza’s paintings.

Take a quick Houzz tour of this Belgaum home
SPASM
2. Spasm has designed a sky courtyard inside this Mandvi home, which cuts across three floors and has wooden louvres that cover the skylight and fill the three floors with fluid shadows all day long. To accentuate this space and to lend drama to the concrete staircase, a special light installation is made from Russian pole lamps and chains suspended at various heights.

Take a tour of this home
SPACES ARCHITECTS@ka
3. Spaces Architects@ka shows how an atrium can also be used for an indoor pool. See how the entire area has a calm, relaxed vibe to it, with the glass-enclosed tree, the cove lighting on the stone walls and wooden flooring on the right.
SPACES ARCHITECTS@ka
4. In a similar example, Spaces Architects@ka have aimed to create a Zen-like atrium with a lush vertical garden, a Buddha statue and the sound of flowing water filling the room.
Khosla Associates
5. This bathroom, envisioned as an atrium space by Khosla Associates, features a sunken bathtubr, a shower and a skylight above. The floor covered with small stones and the tall plant in a corner recreate a relaxed, outdoors, tropical look.
Manasaram Architects
6. This centrally situated atrium with all the rooms arranged around it, designed by Manasaram Architects, ensures that all the internal spaces receive plenty of natural light. A green patch creates a small indoor garden on the ground floor and rolled-up jute blinds hang on the sides, ready to be lowered for protection when the sunshine becomes too bright to handle.

Read more:
Courtyards That Mesmerise

Tell us:
Do you have an atrium space in your home? How have you accentuated it? Tell us in Comments below.
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