2. From the Mujing to the Yingzao Fashi: The Rise of Building Manuals and the Construction of Architectural Knowledge

2017 ◽  
pp. 60-99
Keyword(s):  
Yingzao Fashi ◽  
Architectural Knowledge

Discovering Architecture

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Walker
Keyword(s):  
Early Modern ◽  
Ancient World ◽  
Ancient Athens ◽  
Early Modern English ◽  
Degree Of Confidence ◽  
Architectural Principles ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Architectural Knowledge

This chapter deals with the genesis of architectural knowledge. In particular, it explores those rare moments when early modern English authors wrote about newly discovered examples of ancient architecture, the most important forms of architectural knowledge that existed. I will discuss three such accounts (all published in the Philosophical Transactions) of Roman York, Palmyra, and ancient Athens. These three texts share a preoccupation with truth and accuracy, as befitted the task of communicating highly sought-after architectural knowledge. They also demonstrate the degree of confidence of English writers in this period, not only in how they interpreted ancient architecture, but also in how they sought to criticize previous European authors on the subject. But most importantly, these texts reveal the extent of English intellectuals’ knowledge of the architectural principles of the ancient world and how that knowledge was in a state of flux.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew Walker
Keyword(s):  
Seventeenth Century ◽  
Intellectual History ◽  
Formative Period ◽  
Classical Architecture ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Architectural Knowledge

The Introduction uses a major source from the beginning of the period—Sir Christopher Wren’s Letter from Paris of 1665—to introduce the key themes of the book. In particular, the Introduction discusses the recourse to an intellectual-historical method in order to rethink major themes in English architectural culture at the time. It also explains the makeup of architectural knowledge in the period and justifies the book’s focus on aesthetic knowledge rather than practical. Finally, it uses seventeenth-century sources to formulate an appropriate definition of classical architecture (on which this book is exclusively focused). The Introduction concludes with a summary of the ensuing chapters and a proposition that architecture was among the most serious and important of all intellectual pursuits in a formative period in English intellectual history.

Using variability modeling principles to capture architectural knowledge

2006 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Sinnema ◽  
Jan Salvador van der Ven ◽  
Sybren Deelstra
Keyword(s):  
Variability Modeling ◽  
Architectural Knowledge ◽  
Modeling Principles

Using an architectural knowledge base to generate code for parallel computers

1989 ◽  
Vol 32 (9) ◽  
pp. 1065-1072 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony E. Terrano ◽  
Stanley M. Dunn ◽  
Joseph E. Peters
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Base ◽  
Parallel Computers ◽  
Architectural Knowledge

Historicism and Architectural Knowledge

Philosophy ◽  
1993 ◽  
Vol 68 (264) ◽  
pp. 127-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony O'Hear
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Karl Popper ◽  
Monumental Architecture ◽  
Ancient City ◽  
Modernist Architecture ◽  
Architectural Knowledge ◽  
New Millennium

Even today, apologists for modernist and post-modernist architecture frequently appeal to what, following Sir Karl Popper, I will call historicist arguments. Such arguments have a particular poignancy when they are used to justify the replacement of some familiar part of an ancient city with some intentionally untraditional structure; as, for example, when a familiar nineteenth century block of offices in a prime city site is swept away to make room for something supposedly more fitting to the ‘new millennium’, a ‘twentieth century contribution to monumental architecture’, a building ‘of substantial importance to the present age’. Similarly, those architects or consumers of architecture who fail to conform to whatever stylistic demands the age is held to demand are marginalized in many supposedly serious discussions of architecture, and made to feel out of place and out of time.

scholarly journals Glimpses of Ancient Indian Town Planning for Building Modern Heritage Cities

2016 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. 07-11
Author(s):  
SURESHA RAJA
Keyword(s):  
Smart Cities ◽  
Drainage Water ◽  
Town Planning ◽  
Water Supply Systems ◽  
Literary Sources ◽  
Vedic Literature ◽  
Architectural Knowledge ◽  
Supply Systems ◽  
Indian Cities ◽  
Future Growth

Ancient Indians had a good architectural knowledge that is evident from the various temples, palaces, forts and other monuments seen spread all around the country. With vast urban population and pilgrim centers, the knowledge of town planning was to be very effective and the ancient Indians enunciated the rules of town planning in their ancient architectural treatises. Glimpses of these features are also to be found in earlier archaeological finds, texts belonging to the Vedic, Epic and Purānic periods. The features of various cities and town planning aspects dealt in these texts are first briefly described that serve as a model for developing Modern Heritage cities. Since hundred Indian cities are soon going to be developed as ‘Smart-Cities’, it would be apt and imperative to discuss the concept of Heritage-Cities as well. Just as the Smart-Cities would be the torchbearers of future growth; Heritage-Cities connect us to our glorious past. Thus, in this paper, humble efforts are made to identify and recognize the valuable factors that contribute to enhance the charm of Heritage-Cities giving a brief overview of earlier Town planning features from ancient Indian texts. Ancient Indians had a well planned system of building villages, towns, intricate drainage, water supply systems, markets, palaces, households and public spaces that are evident from archeological and literary sources. The features mentioned in Vedic, epic and post-Vedic literature could serve as a model for modern town planning, for harmonious living with nature.

scholarly journals Making Modern Knowledge of Traditional Carpentry in China and Japan: Myth, Reality and Transmission

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 34-62
Author(s):  
Ren Congcong
Keyword(s):  
New Technologies ◽  
Modern Technology ◽  
Building Industry ◽  
Heritage Culture ◽  
History Of ◽  
China And Japan ◽  
Yingzao Fashi ◽  
Historical Trajectory ◽  
Building Practice ◽  
Building Standards

Abstract Carpentry skills were among the most important elements of building practice in premodern China and Japan, and traditional carpentry skills continue in use in both countries to the present day. Although their importance has been greatly marginalised in building practice, in both countries some master carpenters have gained public recognition. This paper compares the modernisation of traditional building knowledge in China and Japan, and the fate of carpentry knowledge as the building industry and the formal discipline of architecture evolved. It distinguishes three phases in this historical trajectory: the period during the introduction of Western architecture as a discipline, when traditional knowledge was rejected or used selectively in the construction of national histories of building; the period when modern technology took over the main building industry and traditional craftsmen had to confront the realities of new technologies of production; and the period, still unfolding today, where heritage movements are promoting the recuperation and development of traditional craft knowledge. For each country, the paper traces how the nation’s history of building was selectively fashioned into an orthodox narrative; explores the content of key early technical works (for China, the official handbook Yingzao fashi [Building standards] and the craftsman’s manual Lu Ban jing [Carpenters’ Canon], and for Japan kikujutsu [literally, “compass and ruler techniques”] books); and shows how a talented master carpenter succeeded in creating a niche for himself within the contemporary heritage culture. It concludes that differences in the cultural respect accorded to carpentry knowledge in the two countries are rooted in the contrasting status of craftsmen in the premodern era.

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