Chinese Architecture

Introduction

Since the Tang Dynasty, Chinese architecture has had a major influence on the architectural styles of many neighbouring countries including Korea, Vietnam and Japan.

However, for over 4,000 years the style and structural principals of Chinese architecture have changed little with the main changes being only cosmetic.

This makes China's building techniques unique in that up until recent times and despite repeated foreign invasions - military, intellectual, and spiritual - only rapid urbanisation has meant that mass produced high floor area Western style buildings now dominate the skylines of Chinese cities.

The information below covers the features of the architecture as well as construction methods.

Architectural Features: Enclosure

Western architectural practices typically involve surrounding a building by an open yard on the property. The opposite is true for Chinese architecture where buildings take up an entire plot but this area has open spaces within. These enclosed spaces come in two forms: the open courtyard and the "sky well" 

This is best exemplified in the Siheyuan,  most commonly seen in Beijing's Hutongs, which consists of an empty space surrounded by buildings connected with one another either directly or through verandas.

In the South of China the same concept applies although the structure is different in that the "sky well" is essentially a relatively enclosed courtyard formed from the intersections of closely spaced buildings and offers a small opening to the sky through the roof space from the floor up.

These enclosures allow temperature regulation and venting of the building. Northern courtyards are typically open and facing the south to allow the maximum exposure of the building windows and walls to the sun while keeping the cold northern winds out.

Southern sky wells are relatively small and serves to collect rain water from the roof tops while restricting the amount of sunlight that enters the building. Sky wells also serve as vents for rising hot air, which draws cool air from the lowers stories of the house and allows for exchange of cool air with the outside.

Architectural Features: Hierarchical

Architectural Features: Mythical concepts

• Screen walls to face the main entrance of the house, which stems from the belief that evil things travel on straight lines and so cannot enter this way.
• Talismans and fortuitous imagery:
  • Door gods displayed on doorways to ward evil and encourage the flow of good fortune - you will see these frequently in the form of lions at entrances to old and new buildings.
  • Fruits and animals that symbolize good fortune and prosperity, such as bats and pomegranates.
• Orienting the structure with its back to elevated landscape and ensuring that there is water in the front. Considerations are also so that the generally windowless back of the structure faces the north, where the wind is coldest in the winter.
• Ponds, pools, wells, and other water sources are usually built into the structure

The use of certain colors, numbers and the cardinal directions in traditional Chinese architecture reflected the belief that the nature of a thing could be wholly contained in its own form. Although the Western tradition gradually developed a body of architectural literature, little was written on the subject in China, and the earliest text, the Kaogongji, was never disputed. However, ideas about cosmic harmony and the order of the city were usually interpreted at their most basic level, so a reproduction of the "ideal" city never existed. Beijing as reconstructed throughout the 15th and 16th century remains one of the best examples of traditional Chinese town planning.

Construction: Structure

• Use of large structural logs for primary support of the roof of a building. Wooden timber, usually large trimmed logs, are used as load-bearing columns and lateral beams for framing buildings and supporting the roofs. These structural timbers are prominently displayed in finished structures.
• Timber frames are typically constructed with jointnary and doweling alone, seldom with the use of glue or nails. Structural stability is further ensured through the use of heavy beams and roofs, which weighs the structure down.
• Using even numbers of columns in a building structure to produce odd numbers of bays. With the inclusion of a main door to a building in the centre bay, symmetry is maintained.
• The common use of curtain walls or door panels to delineate rooms or enclose a building, with the general deemphasis of load-bearing walls in most higher class construction.
• Flat roofs are uncommon while gabled roofs almost omnipresent in traditional Chinese architecture. Three main types of roofs are found
• Straight inclined: Roofs with a single incline. These are the most economical type of roofing and are most prevalent in commoner architectures

• Multi-inclined: Roofs with 2 or more sections of incline. These roofs are used in higher class constructions, from the dwellings of wealthy commoners to palaces
• Sweeping: Roofs with a sweeping curvature that rises at the corners of the roof. The types of roof construction are usually reserved for temples and palaces although it may also be found in the homes of the wealthy. In the former cases, the ridges of the roof are usually highly decorated with ceramic figurines.
• The roof apex of large hall are usually topped with a ridge of tiles for both decorative purposes but also to weigh down the layers of roofing tiles. These ridges are often well decorated, especially for religious or palatial structures.

Construction: Materials

Unlike other building construction materials, old wooden structures often do not survive because they are more vulnerable to weathering and fires and are naturally subjected to rotting over time. Although now nonexistent wooden residential towers, watchtowers, and pagodas predated it by centuries, the Songyue Pagoda built in 523 is the oldest extant pagoda in China; its use of brick instead of wood had much to do with its endurance throughout the centuries.

From the Tang Dynasty (618–907) onwards, brick and stone architecture gradually became more common and replaced wooden edifices. The earliest of this transition can be seen in building projects such as the Zhaozhou Bridge completed in 605 or the Xumi Pagoda built in 636, yet stone and brick architecture is known to have been used in subterranean tomb architecture of earlier dynasties.

Architectural types: Commoner

The buildings of bureaucrats, merchants or farmers tended to follow a set pattern: the center of the building would be a shrine for the deities and the ancestors, which would also be used during festivities. On its two sides were bedrooms for the elders; the two wings of the building were for the junior members of the family, as well as the living room, the dining room, and the kitchen.Sometimes the extended families became so large that one or even two extra pairs of "wings" had to be built. This resulted in a U-shaped building, with a courtyard suitable for farm work.

Merchants and bureaucrats, however, preferred to close off the front with an imposing front gate. All buildings were legally regulated, and the law held that the number of storeys, the length of the building and the colours used depended on the owner's class. 

The wooden columns of the buildings, as well as the surface of the walls, tend to be red in color. It was believed that black, often used in pagodas, inspired the gods to descend on to the earth.

The Chinese five-clawed dragon, adopted by the first Ming emperor for his personal use, was used as decoration on the beams, pillars, and on the doors on Imperial architecture.but never the roof.

Only the buildings used by the imperial family were allowed to have nine spaces between columns; only the gates used by the Emperor could have five arches, with the centre one, of course, being reserved for the Emperor himself.

Beijing became the capital of China after the Mongol invasion of the 13th century, completing the easterly migration of the Chinese capital begun since the Jin dynasty, the Ming uprising in 1368 fixed Beijing as the seat of imperial power for the next five centuries. The Emperor and the Empress lived in palaces on the central axis of the Forbidden City, the Crown Prince at the eastern side, and the concubines at the back. However, during the mid-Qing Dynasty, the Emperor's residence was moved to the western side of the complex.

Numerology heavily influenced Imperial Architecture, hence the use of nine in much of construction (nine being the greatest single digit number) and reason why The Forbidden City in Beijing is said to have 9,999.9 rooms - just short of the mythical 10,000 rooms in heaven. The importance of the East (the direction of the rising sun) in orienting and siting Imperial buildings is a form of solar worship found in many ancient cultures, where the ruler is linked with the Sun.

Architectural types: Religious

Generally speaking, Buddhist architecture followed the imperial style. A large Buddhist monastery normally has a front hall, housing the statue of a Bodhisattva, followed by a great hall, housing the statues of the Buddhas. Accommodations for the monks and the nuns are located at the two sides. Monasteries sometimes contained pagodas as well.

Architectural types: Modern

The communist period from 1949 to 1979 built huge swathes of bland, functional and pragmatic architecture across China's cities.

There are a few showcases from this period such as Beijing's Great Hall of the People which is a radical departure from traditional Chinese architecture and was heavily influenced by the large communist edifices found in Russia.

Much of what was built during this period was based on the concept of work units where workers lived and worked within the same complex. This meant that cities had a mix throughout of factories and residential which later led to many issues with pollution. The breakdown of the work unit system since 1979 has led to huge changes in the landscape of cities with industrial facilities moving out and large residential and office districts being built in their place. Little of this new architecture confirms to any sense of tradition providing a huge break with the past both visually and culturally. Any visitor to China is likely to be overwhelmed (positively or negatively) by this transformation.

In recent years as the wealth has accumulated so has the creation of huge prestige projects such as Beijing's National Theatre and the CCTV tower. To underline the break with the past most of these new landmarks have been designed by foreign architects - something unthinkable in the past. The Olympic games of 2008 provided perhaps the most iconic building of this new China - the Bird's Nest stadium (Swiss architects!)

Content edited from Wikipedia