Lecture Charles Rice: The void at the heart of architecture

In the 1970s, a void opened at the heart of architecture. In hotels, offices, public buildings and commercial centres, 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. The lecture will offer a tour through the themes and case studies of Rice’s new book Atrium (MIT Press, 2023), charting the atrium’s appearance and development as it accompanied profound shifts in the discipline and practice of architecture. 

Charles Rice is Professor of Architecture at the University of Technology Sydney. He is author of The Emergence of the Interior: Architecture, Modernity, Domesticity (2007), Interior Urbanism: Architecture, John Portman and Downtown America (2016) and Atrium (2023). From 2012 to 2019 he was co-editor then editor-in-chief of The Journal of Architecture. His research has been funded by the Australian Research Council and the Graham Foundation, and in 2022 he was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Michigan.

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For more information, please send an email to Janina Gosseye.