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Chinese Architecture
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- 2. With their curvedroofs, brilliantly painted wall and pillars and strange carvings , and odd details like free- standing gates and round doors, nothing could look more alien to Western eyes than traditional Chinese buildings -- more ‘picturesque’; more ‘exotic’; representative of a culture that is nothing like ours.
- 3. Moonlight and BreezePavilion, Suzhou
- 4. Temple of Heaven,Beijing
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- 6. However, the realdifferences between Chinese and Western architecture are not aesthetic, but structural.
- 7. Since the mostancient times, times, architecture in China has had certain definite characteristics.
- 8. Reconstruction, Banpo Village,Yangshao Culture
- 9. Cross-section of ahut from Banpo village
- 10. Notice --- • Columnssupport the roof. • Walls are merely enclosing screens • Roof overhangs the walls
- 11. The Neolithic hut(which could be round, rectangular or square) was also sunk a meter into the ground and approached by steps. It would be made of wattle and daub. These were not characteristics of buildings of later times; however, like buildings of later times, the ancient home would always face south, and would use pise (stamped earth) for a foundation.
- 12. Note how theNeolithic hut resembles the Temple of Heaven. • Neolithic period. • Ming Dynasty.
- 13. Temple of Heaven •Columns support the roof • Walls are merely enclosing screens • Roof overhangs the walls.
- 14. This type ofbuilding, in which the roof is supported by pillars, ‘tied’ with cross- beams and topped by a further cross- beam structure (which carries the roof) is called post and beam construction. It is not unknown in the West, but here it was used mostly for simple structures, such as the homes the first North American colonists built.
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- 16. In China, however,by the Han Dynasty, this seemingly simple type of structure was being used for monumental buildings, especially for palaces.
- 17. The Han Dynastiesmulti-storied buildings made of wood have long since been been burnt to the ground ...
- 18. We have onlymodels, rubbings, and descriptive poems. • Han farmhouse Han palace gate
- 19. Five Dynasty, Suiand Tang Dynasty wooden buildings were also mostly destroyed, in the great persecutions against Buddhism. However, we have some examples of what Tang architecture was like in stone, as well as wooden copies that survive from Japan, from that period.
- 20.
- 21. The curve ofthe roof really developed by Tang times.
- 22. Besides being aestheticallyattractive, this curve: • Helped prevent the roof tiles from sliding off. • Had a slight lift at the corners that helped to accommodate the bracketing required to support the overhang of the eaves at the corners.
- 23. Slight roof curvesare seen in both the Nanchansi in Wutaishan, Shanzi, as well as the Foguangsi, also at Wutaishan, two Tang wooden buildings that did survive.
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- 26. The roof curvewas made possible because the Chinese ‘beam-frame’ construction used for roofs could be made to take any shape by varying the height and position of the queenposts on which the purlins sit.
- 27. This is notpossible with the rigid rectangular truss used in Western roofs. • Chinese Western
- 28. These curved roofswere supported by brackets on top of the pillars that are part of the structure of post and beam construction.
- 29. These brackets becamevery decorative. • Brackets of Foguangsi, shown in detail.
- 30. Another important partof the building was called the ang. The ang was a slanting curved arm, reaching out under the eaves that was used a lever bridging the two sets of bracketing.
- 31. Ang construction changesover time. • 1. Tang 2. Sung 3. Yuan 4. Ming 5. Qing
- 32. As, indeed, stylesof buildings change over time. • Qianqing Hall, Forbidden City, Ming Dynasty
- 33.
- 34. And now, justas Western architecture has come to China .. • Great Hall of the People, Beijing
- 35. Chinese architects affectother parts of the world. • Louvre, pyramid, architect: I.M. Pei