Shopping Centre Daylight Atrium

Refurbishment of a 1990s shopping centre around its steel-framed glass atrium: re-glazed rooflight, unified shopfront datum, and calmer tiled commons.

Brief

The centre's glass roof was its best asset and its biggest maintenance liability.

Approach

We resurveyed the existing steel grid, re-glazed with lighter units to cut dead load, and used the daylight gain to strip back artificial lighting in the mall commons.

Outcome

Energy use in the common areas dropped by a third, and the atrium no longer leaks.

Photography: Wikimedia Commons (public domain).