Feng Jiren, Chinese Architecture and Metaphor: Song Culture in the Yingzao Fashi Building Manual, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press (Spatial Habitus: Making and Meaning in Asia’s Vernacular Architecture), 2012, 304 pp.

2016 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 152-158
Author(s):  
Caroline Bodolec
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Vernacular Architecture ◽  
Chinese Architecture ◽  
Yingzao Fashi

Building in China: Henry K. Murphy's “Adaptive Architecture,” 1914–1935. By Jeffrey W. Cody. [Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 2001. xxiv+264 pp. $38.00. ISBN 962-201-871-8.]

2002 ◽  
Vol 172 ◽  
pp. 1065-1103
Author(s):  
Adalberto Tenreiro
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Axial Symmetry ◽  
Chinese American ◽  
Special Care ◽  
Chinese Architecture ◽  
Chinese University ◽  
Adaptive Architecture ◽  
Chinese Characteristics ◽  
Structural Significance

This book demonstrates Jeffrey Cody's affection for Henry Murphy's use and promotion of the traditions of Chinese architecture. Murphy combined the traditional Chinese characteristics of elevation, roof form and axial symmetry with contemporary technologies in order to achieve “structural significance” and “purity of form and colour.” He achieved this during long periods spent in China where he brought together teams of American and Chinese-American architects while taking special care with clients and contractors.

The case for an oral architecture: carpentry and communal assembly among the Dong of Southwest China

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Blundell Jones ◽  
Derong Kong
Keyword(s):  
Local Community ◽  
Southwest China ◽  
Vernacular Architecture ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Construction Site ◽  
Office Work ◽  
Good Sense ◽  
Chinese Architecture ◽  
Long Time ◽  
The 1960S

Chinese architecture was for a long time ignored because it was not produced by architects and because it did not follow Western classical expectations, and vernacular architecture was little discussed until the 1960s, and only recently embraced by its own encyclopaedia. Yet the division of labour between drawing architect and practical builder was never wholly advantageous or inevitable, for specialisation of roles can lead to differentiation, inequality, and division, as well as constructional efficiency. Only in the last century has the division between office work and construction site become so complete, resulting in losses as well as gains. Most obviously it has removed design from making, the person with the drawing pen no longer obliged to experience the materials in their weight and texture, or to discover by handling them the best ways to work them. The designer who has never picked up a brick or wielded a chisel can possess little sensibility for the material, but as long as their duties are fulfilled on paper with apparent competence, the process is carried through. On the receiving end, bricklayer or carpenter must produce what drawings demand even when good sense seems lacking, so they carry the work through grumpily without conviction instead of participating in the creative process. This paper looks at oral architecture in the Dong culture, and the way in which buildings have traditionally been produced by carpenters along with the local community, accompanied by shared rituals which reinforce their significance.

Building Materials of Chinese Architecture

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qinghua Guo
Keyword(s):  
Building Materials ◽  
Modular Design ◽  
18Th Century ◽  
Critical Study ◽  
Construction Technology ◽  
Construction Work ◽  
Chinese Architecture ◽  
Mud Bricks ◽  
Materials Used ◽  
Yingzao Fashi

This bibliography is a summation of our present knowledge of building materials used in China from prehistoric (c. 3000 bce) to premodern times (18th century). Earth, timber, stone, bricks, and tiles are the major materials developed with construction purposes. Earth and wood rendered as tu-mu are a synonym for construction work used throughout the history. In the case of earth, for example, it was used to build not only architecture but also infrastructure (such as city walls) with different techniques (e.g., direct molding and cob, rammed earth with framework and adobe [mud bricks]). China is well known for its long tradition of historical documentation; however building materials in early imperial times were only occasionally mentioned in literature, and their manufacture details were recorded in a few documents. The oldest written source in existence is the Yingzao Fashi (1103). A large number of historic buildings survived from the Ming-Qing times are timber-framed. Therefore, timber architecture has been studied more intensely than the others. And, scholarly attention has put more on the later period of Chinese architecture. Critical study of Chinese architecture did not begin until the 20th century. In the field of building materials, the academic work was scarce. Obviously, the study overlaps with a number of fields: construction, technology, architecture, and archaeology. Within the topic, this bibliography is organized in five categories: timber, stone and earth, bricks and tiles, mortars, coating and painting. Timber includes various prefabricated elements and units, such as columns, beams and block-bracket sets (dou-gong). Over time, Chinese timber architecture developed into a modular design and building standard as a system. Wooden buildings require coatings for weather proofing, which led to application of decorative coatings and paints. Drainage and waterproofing had been major issues for buildings and structures, which resulted in the development from adobe to bricks and tiles. Each section reviews main issues and lists recent scholarly contributions, as well as important database sources.

Burnout among Hong Kong Chinese architecture students: the paradoxical effect of Confucian conformity values

2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 287-298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunyan Andrea Jia ◽  
Steve Rowlinson ◽  
Thomas Kvan ◽  
Helen Clare Lingard ◽  
Brenda Yip
Keyword(s):  
Hong Kong ◽  
Hong Kong Chinese ◽  
Paradoxical Effect ◽  
Chinese Architecture

scholarly journals STUDY ON THE CHARACTERISTICS OF HMONG MINORITY'S VERNACULAR DWELLINGS AT HUAYUAN COUNTY IN XIANGXI AREA (CHINA)

2020 ◽  
Vol XLIV-M-1-2020 ◽  
pp. 57-63
Author(s):  
L. Long ◽  
Z. Gan ◽  
D. Zhang ◽  
G. Semprebon
Keyword(s):  
Vernacular Architecture ◽  
Hunan Province ◽  
Chinese Architecture ◽  
Cultural Connotation ◽  
Organization Mode ◽  
Climatic Environment ◽  
History Of ◽  
Historical Culture ◽  
Han Culture ◽  
Hmong People

Abstract. Hmong vernacular dwellings are an indispensable and essential branch of traditional Chinese architecture, which bears the profound history of the integration of minority culture and Han culture for thousands of years. As a typical representative of the Hmong settlement in China, the Hmong Village in Huayuan County, western Hunan Province, has the distinct characteristics of respecting nature and making good use of terrain in the construction of vernacular dwellings, which embodies the unique regional, historical, cultural and national character. Firstly, the article analyzes the influence of terrain, landform, climatic environment, historical culture, and social structure on the layout, shape, and materials of the rural homes of the Hmong people in Huayuan County. Secondly, by analyzing the elements of the courtyard space, the layout characteristics of the courtyard, and the organization mode of the courtyard group, the overall spatial characteristics of the residential courtyard are analyzed. At the same time, from the perspective of a single residential house, to sort out the characteristics of its type as well as the floor plan, building structure, material colour, and detailed decoration. Finally, it emphasizes that the Hmong vernacular dwellings in Huayuan County, embody the distinctive cultural connotation of the Hmong nationality, and show the unique aesthetic and romantic sentiment of the Hmong vernacular architecture to the world.

Reconstituting Chinese Building Tradition: The Yingzao fashi in the Early Twentieth Century

2003 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 470-489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Li Shiqiao
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Song Dynasty ◽  
Cultural Policy ◽  
Architectural History ◽  
Chinese Architecture ◽  
Northern Song Dynasty ◽  
Early Twentieth Century ◽  
Northern Song ◽  
Chinese Scholars ◽  
Yingzao Fashi

In this paper, I analyze several early-twentieth-century attempts to reprint, edit, and annotate a Northern Song dynasty (960-1127) construction manual, the Yingzao fashi (1103), each one revealing an aspect of the project to define Chinese architecture. As manifested in the research on the Yingzao fashi by a number of Chinese scholars and architects, the project to reconstitute and understand the text was closely connected to broader intellectual issues in early-twentieth-century China: nationalism, philological scholarship, and modern historiography. The Yingzao fashi was rediscovered in 1919 by politician and scholar Zhu Qiqian, who saw it as an important text that provided crucial knowledge of the tradition of Chinese architecture. It also became a central document in the construction of a modern Chinese architectural history by Liang Sicheng, Lin Huiyin, and Liu Dunzhen, which was founded on a historiography strongly influenced by the European Enlightenment tradition. Interest in the Yingzao fashi declined in the latter half of the twentieth century due to a Communist cultural policy germinated at Yan'an in the 1940s. The reappearance of the Yingzao fashi in the early twentieth century played a much broader intellectual role than the book originally had as a manual of construction and administration.

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