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This article presents information on the architectural firm Labics. From their studio in an old warehouse in Rome, Italy's Ostiense industrial district, Labics's three principals cup their hands over their ears as jackhammering reverberates through the walls. Despite Rome's reputation as a city where nothing new gets built, this firm's thirty-something progenitors are decidedly optimistic. Accommodating the client's dual programmatic needs for classrooms along with casual meeting and living areas, the design wraps a winding atrium around rectangular classroom boxes, interweaving public and semiprivate spaces in constant relation to one another.

Features the Central Atrium, headquarters of the Bank of Santader in Madrid, Spain. Design and features; Hans Hollein as architect; Associated consultant; Lighting consultant; General contractor.

Details the code-endorsed design techniques for an atrium smoke control system. Objective of the calculation procedures for smoke layer; Need to understand how the design impacts the installation; Importance of coordination of various construction disciplines.

Focuses on the construction of a 41-floor building for the headquarters of Swiss Reinsurance Co., in London, weeks after the attacks on New York's World Trade Center. Strength of the exterior's diagonal grid; Design and energy utilization in the building; Other details regarding the building's floor, atriums and other places; Stage of construction as of November 25, 2002.

The article focuses on the newly opened $4-billion-worth Oculus atrium at the World Trade Center train station in New York that was designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava.

The article reports on the nine-story 245,000 square feet office building being built by Charles Pankow Builders Ltd. in Oakland, California. The building is for Brandywine Realty Trust. The construction project includes a 10-story atrium, one level of below-grade parking and 14,000 square feet of ground-level retail.

Discusses the confrontation of aesthetics and pragmatism in the design of smoke management systems in atria within school buildings. Atria design that is in contrast to the principle of floor-to-floor fire compartmentalization; Objectives of a smoke management system; Determining the appropriate size of the exhaust fan for any atrium situation.