Role of atrium in Aomori Public College – Design approach to an attractive campus in snowy country

Sphere of activities are extremely limited in the wintertime in snowy and cold region. It is essential to maintain and rather extend people’s activities in all aspects of life through the year. The purpose of design of the campus building is to explore covered open space to provide an protected safe and comfotable space from the outside climate. Covered open spaces (mall, atrium etc) in public facilitiy become effective design tools to create attractive interior spaces for participants in these region. Experiment made on Aomori Public College is to provide an atrium as the infrastructure of the campus building to integrate whole academic functions aming at the activation of campus life through the year.