Density and Sensibility
A study of traditonal Chinese
living model and the
applica-tion experiment design in high
density living condition of
modern China
UNIVERSITY: Politecnico di Milano
DEPARTMENT: Scuola di Architettura e Societa
DEGREE: Master of Science in Architecture
ACADEMIC YEAR: 2011
Supervisor: Prof. Dorigati Remo
Authors: ChenXing 750732
Contents:
1:INTRODUCTION
2:THEORETIC STUDY
A.
the concept of “path”and “hide” – a study of living ideology in Chinese traditional poem and painting
B.
the concept of” void” and “minimalism” – a study of traditional village: HongCun
C.
the concept of “view” and “frame” – a study of traditional Chinese garden
3: PROJECTS
1
3
3
10
17
31
Abstract:
Urbanization process always facing a issue of high density living when huge amount of people moving to city and build their home. But the issue has never been as crucial as China is facing today. Until end of 2007, 0.59billion of people has moved from country-side into city, which formed one of the fundamental transformations of modern China. However, the living condition has not developed along with the economic, the poorly designed housing projects is hardly matching humans needs, in a sense of function as well as the culture.
Looking back to the China’s living history and culture, nature has been always the first priority for people’s living environment, the use of nature elements as part of the architecture design is well devel-oped into a sophisticated model of living based on a ideal typology according to the scholar taste, the traditional “mountain and water” paintings, the dwelling design, and the private garden design are the classical examples of this model and the best reflection of the ideal living, the relation between human and nature, and the “zen” philosophy. By researching and analyzing these cases, we try to rethink a new renovation of living typology, which interpret the tra-ditional culture and values, but also fulfill the high density modern living scenario.
Key Words:
High density, living, Chinese traditional living, human and nature.
Sommario
Processo di urbanizzazione sempre di fronte a un problema di alta
densità di vita in cui enormi quantità di persone che si spostano in
città e costruire la loro casa. Ma la questione non è mai stata così
importante come la Cina si trova ad affrontare oggi. Fino alla fine
del 2007, 0.59billion di persone si è spostata dalle campagne in
cit-tà, che costituiva una delle trasformazioni fondamentali della Cina
moderna. Tuttavia, la condizione di vita non si è sviluppato insieme
con le politiche economiche, i progetti di abitazioni mal progettato
non è certo soddisfare le esigenze di esseri umani, in un certo senso
WangJing Residential Beijing
Introduction:
Our thesis is based on the case study of
the traditional Chinese mountains,
dwell-ings and private gardens, try to analyze the
philosophy behind which relates to human
living, and their sensibility about the
na-ture. By analyzing the philosophy of each,
we will try to abstract the key features and
typology model of these examples,
focus-ing on the idea of usfocus-ing nature elements
as a coordinated system for human living
environment. After, we will try to interpret
these models into a modern scenario
ex-perimentally, to a high density housing
de-sign project in the city of Beijing.
The traditional mountain and water
paint-ings is a style that developed by the
Chi-nese scholars to show their spirit pursue
and the concept of PATH and HIDE, in
this chapter we will analyzing the classical
works of ancient artist, focusing on these
two words.
The traditional dwellings of China, even
though a vast variety has been developed
according every specific culture and
cli-mate condition, yet they also bear some
common features, like the courtyard, the
treatment of the structure, and the
aesthet-ic of the simplaesthet-icity. In this chapter we will
take an ancient village that has been built
in 9th century, HongCun Village, a well
pre-served village thanks to it’s rural position
and inconvenient transport, a word culture
heritage site, as an example, to explain the
concept of the Void and Minimalism that
adopted in almost all Chinese dwelling
de-The Mountain and Water paintings
Song Dynasty( 9th AD -11th AD)
sign.
And Suzhou gardens, which represents the
highest level of gardening design of Chinese
scholars, is a realistic version of the
tradi-tional mountain and water paintings, in a
extremely limited space. Thus the views
de-sign has been very sophisticated dede-signed
to best show the beauty of the nature. View
and Frame are the key words in this process,
while the concepts of path and hide, void and
minimalism are all reflected.
In the modern China, cheap housing has
made the city identity lost. The city centre of
Beijing has been filled with housing projects
that either a standard machine or a copy of
an international style( steven holl’s MOMA
project for example). Now the city is already
oversized and is suffering from it crowd and
traffic. Now a few sub-centre is under
de-velopment, and Song-Zhung is one of them
that is a newly developed central for art and
SuZhou Garden
The Mountain and Water Paintings
Brief IntroductionLandscape painting is traditionally at the top of the hierarchy of Chinese painting styles. It is very popular and is associated with refined scholarly taste. The Chinese term for ‘landscape’ is made up of two characters meaning ‘mountains and water’. It is linked with the philosophy of Daoism, which emphasizes harmony with the natural world. In China, mountains are
as-sociated with religion because they reach up towards the heavens. People therefore believe that looking at paintings of mountains is good for the soul.
Chinese painting in general is seen as an extension of calligraphy and uses the same brush-strokes. The colours are restrained and subtle and the paintings are usually created in ink on paper, with a small amount of watercolour.
Beginning in the Tang Dynasty, many paintings were landscapes, often shanshui (“mountain water”) paintings. In these landscapes, monochromatic and sparse (a style that is collectively called shuimohua), the purpose was not to reproduce exactly the appearance of nature (real-ism) but rather to grasp an emotion or atmosphere so as to catch the “rhythm” of nature.
By the late Tang dynasty, landscape painting had evolved into an independent genre that em-bodied the universal longing of cultivated men to escape their quotidian world to commune with nature. Such images might also convey specific social, philosophical, or political convictions. As the Tang dynasty disintegrated, the concept of withdrawal into the natural world became a major thematic focus of poets and painters. Faced with the failure of the human order, learned men sought permanence within the natural world, retreating into the mountains to find a sanc-tuary from the chaos of dynastic collapse.
In the Song Dynasty period (960-1279), landscapes of more subtle expression appeared; im-measurable distances were conveyed through the use of blurred outlines, mountain contours disappearing into the mist, and impressionistic treatment of natural phenomena. Emphasis was placed on the spiritual qualities of the painting and on the ability of the artist to reveal the inner harmony of man and nature, as perceived according to Taoist and Buddhist concepts. During the early Song dynasty, visions of the natural hierarchy became metaphors for the well-regulated state. At the same time, images of the private retreat proliferated among a new class of scholar-officials. These men extolled the virtues of self-cultivation often in response to political setbacks or career disappointments and asserted their identity as literati through poetry, calligraphy, and a new style of painting that employed calligraphic brushwork for self-expressive ends. The monochrome images of old trees, bamboo, rocks, and retirement re-treats created by these scholar-artists became emblems of their character and spirit.
Under the Mongol Yuan dynasty,
when many educated Chinese
were barred from government
service, the model of the Song
literati retreat evolved into a
full-blown alternative culture as
this disenfranchised elite
trans-formed their estates into sites
for literary gatherings and other
cultural pursuits. These
gath-erings were frequently
com-memorated in paintings that,
rather than presenting a realistic
depiction of an actual place,
con-veyed the shared cultural ideals
of a reclusive world through a
symbolic shorthand in which a
villa might be represented by a
humble thatched hut. Because a
man’s studio or garden could
be viewed as an extension of
himself, paintings of such
plac-es often served to exprplac-ess the
values of their owner.
The Yuan dynasty also
wit-nessed the burgeoning of a
sec-ond kind of cultivated landscape,
the “mind landscape,” which
em-bodied both learned references
to the styles of earlier masters
and, through calligraphic
brush-Four Scence of Mountain and Water
Going beyond representation, scholar-artists
imbued their paintings with personal feelings.
By evoking select antique styles, they could
also identify themselves with the values
as-sociated with the old masters. Painting was
no longer about the description of the
vis-ible world; it became a means of conveying
the inner landscape of the artist’s heart and
mind.
During the Ming dynasty, when native
Chi-nese rule was restored, court artists produced
conservative images that revived the Song
metaphor for the state as a well-ordered
im-perial garden, while literati painters pursued
self-expressive goals through the stylistic
language of Yuan scholar-artists. Shen Zhou
(1427-9), the patriarch of the Wu school of
painting centered in the cosmopolitan city of
Suzhou, and his preeminent follower Wen
Zhengming (1470-9) exemplified Ming
litera-ti ideals. Both men chose to reside at home
rather than follow official careers, devoting
themselves to self-cultivation through a
life-time spent reinterpreting the styles of Yuan
scholar-painters.
Morally charged images of reclusion
re-mained a potent political symbol during the
early years of the Manchu Qing dynasty, a
period in which many Ming loyalists lived in
self-enforced retirement. Often lacking
ac-cess to important collections of old masters,
loyalist artists drew inspiration from the
natu-ral beauty of the local scenery.
Images of nature have remained a potent
source of inspiration for artists down to
the present day. While the Chinese
land-scape has been transformed by millennia
of human occupation, Chinese artistic
ex-pression has also been deeply imprinted
with images of the natural world. Viewing
Chinese landscape paintings, it is clear
that Chinese depictions of nature are
sel-dom mere representations of the external
world. Rather, they are expressions of the
mind and heart of the individual artists
cultivated landscapes that embody the
culture and cultivation of their masters.
Friend and Pine Tree,
DuQiong,Ming Dynasty(1368-1644)
Acompany in Spring Mountain Tang Yin, Qing Dynasty (1470-1523)
Analysis :
Elements:
Stone
Mountain
Plants
Water
Bulding: housing , pavillions,bridges, temples
Scence of
Enclosed, Protection Hash:
stone and moutain Soft:
water and trees Sence of
Distance and Infinity
Scence of
hint, connection PingZhang
Sence of
Analysis :
Elements:
Stone
Mountain
Plants
Water
Bulding: housing ,wall, bridges,gates
Scence of
Enclosed, Protection Hash:
stone and moutain Soft:
water and trees
Scence of hint, connection PingZhang Scence of Hide Scence of
Distance and Infinity
Four Scence of Mountain and Water Liu Song Nian, Song Dynasty(1127-1279)
Analysis :
Elements:
Stone
Mountain
Plants
Water
Bulding: housing ,pavillion,fence,bridges,gates
Scence of
Enclosed, Protection Hash:
stone and moutain Soft:
water and trees
View to Infinity
Philosophy of Hind and
Path
The concept of the Hide and Path are the constant theme of the mountain and wa-ter paintings. Because the living environ-ment is considered to be an escape for the scholars from the politics and the social life, where they have spiritual practice in the natural world, the path is also a spiri-tual tour from the normal world to a nature infinity heaven with a purify process of the soul. So the mountain and water perform not only as a view but also as a barrier, that protect the residence, in a bigger scale, when come to the human scale, the rocks and stones form another layer of protec-tion, visually and physically. After the plant is the last layer that soften the edges and also provide a pleasant living environment. And this is a linear path that connect the outside world with the residence and also the infinite destination which usually disap-pearing into the mountains. Than this lin-ear is rhythmically emphasized some point by a bridge or weaken by the plants and rocks. The bridge usually therefore is a hint of the space which behind the rocks. This topology composition is the core of this model that reflected the ideal relation be-tween human and nature,A HOMONY BE-TWEEN HEAVEN ,EARTH AND HUMAN.
hard
HEAVEN
EARTH HUMAN
a rhythm linear connection fluid hard soft
Hong Cun Village Study
Hongcun was first founded in the Shaoxing period of the Southern Song Dynasty (about AD. 1131-1162), with a history of about 900 years.
Hongcun has the system of streets and alleys which looks like square net. The ground is covered by granite stones. The manmade wa-ter system through all families forms unique space of Water Street and Alley. The village centers- the Moon Pond which is a crescent-shaped pond. It’s surrounded by houses and ancestral temples. It exhibits strong cohesion. There are 158 domestic houses in existence, which were built in the Ming or Qing Dynasty. 137 houses of them are in a good state of preservation. The buildings of the Qing dy-nasty own not only beautiful surroundings, but also logical function layout.
The structure is elegant and blends closely with nature. It creates a scientific living en-vironment, which is also full of affection. It’s one outstanding representative of China’s tra-ditional domestic houses.
Most villagers divert water in canals into hous-es, and forms “House Garden” and “Water Yard” which exist only in village. This makes the construction of Hongcun inaugurate the special house pattern of water-side pavilion of Hui constructions. Hongcun is an outstand-ing representative of Huizhou traditional local culture, building techniques and landscape design. It is full of much value of history, art and science.
ShangHai
Site Selection
The location of HongCun village is chosen cor-respond the concept of FengShui theory which has a clear and specific composition of the mountain and water. ,most common was the siting of a village with a hill in the back ground, a hill to screen in the foreground and water en-circling. The sense of the closure and protectin is formed by the mountains around , and the water provide another later of protection also the needs for agriculture and daily living. This also correspond to the Daoism and Zen that is about void and hide, when there is a void, there is full of activity and life happening inside, and it only reflects what happening outside espe-cially the nature world. The focus will be on the changing of these nature elements instead of the container it self. This sense of protection is also needed because the family blood relation based community at that period of time, the vil-lage is highly defensive and reserved.
The relation with Mountain and Water The sense of hide and a void.
The FengShui theory.
The Agriculture related culture and life style. The Daoism and Zen.
the Reference of Zen and Daoism
the Nature Environment of Hong Village
the Ideal Location of a Village in FengShui Theory west rivulet east rivulet guyang mountain east mountain gui mountain leigang mountain yangzhan rivulet
west rivulet east rivulet main road sub-road private-access water yards south lake
moon pond
shape of the village is reflected in the shape of the
Moon Pond, which is the central space of the village South Lake
Water System - South Lake and Moon Pond
The water system of HongCun village is composed by the natural river on the both sides, and the manmade “ south lake” on the south side of the village and the “ Moon Pond” that sits in the middle, as well as the manmade stream that running through the village from north-west to south-east , that provide a water supply for daily use. The residence also guide the water in to their private property forming the so called water yards.
Water System - ManmadeStream and Water
Yards
The local residence use the manmade stream
that running through the village from west
rivu-let to the south lake for daily life and
produc-tion, some of them guide the water into their
own courtyard to form a so called water yard,
this is partly cause the water is a symbol of
luck and fortune and also cause the fire
con-trol. Sometimes the orrientation of the
main-building and lyout is compromised to have a
nice water courtyard.
Building Typology
-the concept of void
Courtyard is a key in all kinds of residential typology
of China, only North china has a bigger scale while
south has a smaller one. In Hongcun, the courtyard is
a transition space in the building, and also is a activity
centre, with all the important life happens in or around,
the courtyard is all called “ sky well”, which means the
proportion is deep but narrow. with the sloping roof, that
incline inside ,all the rain water will be brought to the
yard, this is considered to be bringing the luck and
for-tune into family.
basic plan typology
YunNan Couryard House HeNan Underground Dwelling
FuJian Adobe House Beijing Siheyuan House
basic facade typology
basic section typology
main building
etrance couryard
A Topology Model Of HongCun Village
The Concept of Void and Ying Yang
Bal-lance
In the planning of the village and the design of the building itself reflects the Daoism that em-phasize the void. The void is considered to be the more important part in everything, like a bow, a car, or a house. And the void is the place where all the activities could happen, by taking the voids as the object then the solid part is no longer a object but a frame, which comple-ment the essence of the void, and the void also allows you have a better connection with the nature.
The mountain and stone and sun is consid-ered to be Yang Elements, while the water, air, moon are considered to be Yin, to keep an Yin and Yang Balance, these elements has been designed one in each other until infinite. This shows the ideal model of the relation with na-ture in ancient Chinese scholar’s mind.
In china, the design of the building is always a process of to maintain the harmony between people and nature, thus the a building is a shut-ter for human but not be a barrier, the typology of the building is a imitation of the nature typol-ogy that gathering the water from sky to guar-antee a sufficient water supply for agriculture needs. Building Section Nature Section Topology Model Yang Elements Yin Elements
The Facade Aesthetic
the concept of Simplicity and Minimalism The concept of a architecture for a traditional chinese is much different from the 3-d sculp-tural tradition in Europe, in China the building is like a tool of living, like clothing or a tran-portation. It is should not be a dominating ele-ments in the environmen but a complement of the nature tha already exist, plus the relatively reserverd personality of Chinese, the external facade is always showing a extrem simplicity and minimalism, to refelct the modest and a laid back attitude towards nature, nutral color are usually used like black, white and gray, plus some times the nature color of wood. decora-tion is only used when there is a consturcdecora-tion detailed or a protection of the material is need-ed. So the image of the Chinese traditional housing is always a “void” in the full picture of the environment, in this way, it reflects the light-ing changlight-ing of the day, and the color changlight-ing of the season in a more hormony way instead of a contrast way.
The Chinese Garden
Also called Chinese Classical Garden and Chinese Scholar’s Garden, is a place for solitary or social contemplation of nature. Chinese gardens were created in the same way as a combina-tion of landscape and paintings together with poems - this was the so-called “poetic garden.” The design of Chinese gardens was to provide a spiritual utopia for one to connect with nature, to come back to one’s inner heart, to come back to ancient idealism. Chinese gardens are a spiritual shelter for people, a place they could be far away from their real social lives, and close to the ancient way of life, their true selves, and nature. This was an escape from the frustration and disappointment of the political problems in China.
If the Shan Shui painting is plane art representating yearning to the nature, the garden is three dimensional reproduction of natural landscape to which people can escape from their real life. the Garden designers were always rich in painting, con-struction, planting and so on. the highest realm of a garden which is persued by the gardeners is discribed as ‘composed manually but seems natually’(虽由人作，宛似天开).
The Rockery in the gardens were clamped with nature stones which should not be cut manually so that to keep the natural shape. Since the rockery was supposed to represent all kinds of natural shapes of mountain such as cliff, valley, cave etc. this work required very skilled artisan who were proficient in shan shui painting. that meant they could compose a ideal rockery scenery before the work started, basing on the site and stone resource.Water was considered as the key element to active the garden. the manual water landscape was designed to rep-resent the natural river, lake, spring etc. Flowing water could also creat acoustic sphere which could make the garden live.
Nature: ‘Water and Mountain’ Territory
6.63 million squre kilometres of the native area in China is mountain area which take up more than 2/3 of the total ter-ritory. this characteristic composition means low persent-age of cultivatable and inhabitable land as well as dif-ficulties in communicating and transport. From the other point of view, 2400 billion cubic metres of water runoff , which is more than 90% of the national amount, is in the mountain area. In China, the mountain is always close related to the water, resulting a charateristic landscape which is yearned by the Chinese since thousands years ago in terms of Aesthetic and Ideoloy.
Shan Shui Painting
Shan shui (Chinese: 山山 lit. “mountain-water”) refers to a style of Chinese painting that involves or depicts scenery or natural landscapes, using a brush and ink rather than more conventional paints. Mountains, rivers and often wa-terfalls are prominent in this art form.
When Chinese painters work on shan shui painting, they do not try to present an image of what they have seen in the nature, but what they have thought about nature. No one cares whether the painted colors and shapes look like the real object or not.Shan shui painting is not an open window for the viewer’s eye, it is an object for the viewer’s mind. Shan shui painting is more like a vehicle of philos-ophy. By the late Tang dynasty, landscape painting had evolved into an independent genre that embodied the uni-versal longing of cultivated men to escape their quotidian world to commune with nature. Such images might also convey specific social, philosophical, or political convic-tions.
Mountain Area Plain Area
Garden scenery design
The garden artisan took advantage of the site environment to creat the ideal garden scenery with all kinds of garden elements including materail shape, volumn, sound, light, color and flavor etc. There are some conventional scenery design method de-There are some conventional scenery design method de-veloped with time: primary and secondary scenery, opposite scenery, defined scenery, devided scenery, framed scenery, borrowed scenery,titled scenery ect. The scenery design was based on imitaiting natural landscape such as ‘obtaining the scenery according to the local environment’, ‘obtaining the sa-vor of the nature from the principle of the nature’, ‘ composed manually but seems natually’. The nature was always the high-est realm for the artisan to persue.
Titled scenery
The titled scenery as one of the most significant traditional cul-ture had several themes which are poetic, pictorial, critical or ambitious and so on. Most of the time, the sceneries in the gar-den were readable owing to the inscribed rock or stone board. The scenery itself were activated and easier to be understood by the visitor staying in.
A pavilion in Wang Shi Park in Suzhou is named ‘moon in gentle wind‘. This pavilion is overhanded west side of the pool, facing east and taking advantage of the ancient poem, the closer to the water the earlier to enjoy the bright moon. Moon was given rich meanings in the old time as well as nowadays. The pavilion and the surrounding scenery was improved qualitatively. Another pavilion in Ji Chang Park in Wuxi is named ‘where un-derstanding fish’. this is also a pavilion placed in front of a pool in which fish were feed from the pavilion. The name is from a ancient story describing people could understand the happy-ness of the fish in the water.
Framed Scenery
In Chinese Gardens, visitors can never obtain all the spectacu-lar sceneries at one single spot. The attractive aspect is the emergence of the sceneries when strolling in the garden. Be-sides the path wich connect the interesting point, different types of frames, windows, doors, trimmed plants, rockcraft caves, work as the view guider or picture frames.
Xiaoshan pavillion in Wangshi Garden was located among planted rockcraft. Big area of opennings invited the nature into the pavillion. The big patterned window on the centre wall was placed as a traditional painting in between the vertical couplet. This painting was composed by the nature element from out-side, enhence the awareness of the nature.
It is more purly designed in the Junzi Pavillion in Liu Garden. A few bamboos were planted and framed by the square opening on the white wall to be highlighted and represent the theme of the pavillion, the place for the people of integrity.
Door openings
Door opennings are quite common in Chinese garden and usu-ally without doors. The most common shape was circular and called Moon door. Besides, there were also hexagonal, octago-nal, rectangular, gourd, plaintain etc. These opennings guided the visitor, connected the speces and also became very fanci-nating decorations of the garden. The sceneries through these opennings were framed and highlighted. These opennings were often arranged with verious angles resulting in the variety of light and shadow in the sun.
The most common object of the openning was to creat the framed scenery. Trees, flowers, stonehills,paths framed in the opennings became amazing pictures. there were also some ex-traodinary shapes, Ruyi, water chestnut, leaves and so on.
Window opennings
window opennings were usually filled with penetrated patterns, which was an important decorative crafts. Patterned windows were usually used on the deviding walls of gallery penetrated courtyards. Through the patterned windows, the landscape were semi-devided, semi-visuable. Shadow and light was also blurred, mottled and changing with the movement of visitors. The straight and white walls were also activated and lively with these window opennings.
The window types were various from materials such as tiles, thin brick, wood, bamboo, to the shape, rectangular, curved, ice patterned etc. The window height was usually 1.5 metres, as high as the eyes of visitors, to achive the most direct and com-fortable sightseeing. Adding more variety to the garden space, the windows also contributed to the vetilation and natrual light-ing.
Opposite Scenery
In opposite sceneries, the relation between see and seen were inhenced. From each side of the opposite sceneries, visitors could be the audiance of the scenery on the other side and at the same time became one part of the scenery this side. The opposite sceneries were often placed on the pool side or on dif-ferent elevaitons so that the view between became more direct and clear.
In Wangshi garden, a number of different types of pavilions were built along the pool sides, resulting in a series of typical opposite scenery. The water front pavillions were designed for the visitors to stay and see the sight. The sight with people in-side became more lively and vivid.
Borrowing Scenery
In some gardens, there were certain postion where visitors could enjoy the spectacular view from outside the garden. Un-sally the view spot was raised and the obtacles were got rid of to borrow the sight more directly, overcome the border of the garden. The borrowed Scenery could be natural landscape, buildings and even stars in the night sky.
In Zhuozheng Garden, taking advantage of the open lake, Be-ita tower could be easily seen and became a facinating view in the garden. The same thing happened in Jichang Garden, tow-ers on the close hills are borrowed into the garden.
In Summer Palace of Beijing, the natural landscape of west mountains are borrowed into the buildings and pavillions of the palace.
besides the borrowing of the forms described above, sound borrowing could also add greatly to the scenery in a garden if handled appropriately and innovatively. The beautiful world of sound could be incorporated into the garden, and thus arouse endless associations. The chime of bells in distant temples at dawn or at dusk, the sound of water flowing in brooks in moun-tain valleys, the patering of rain on the broad leaves of banana trees on autumn evenings, and the singing of birds in willows on warm spring days could all be “borrowed” to create a poetic atmosphere in an architectural environment.
The fragrance of plants could add to the charm of gardens, and so could also be “borrowed”, or taken into consideration when designing a garden. Lanpu Garden in Guangzhou was famous for its orchids, and their fragrance made the garden a famous attraction. The lotus flower was a favorite plant in classical gar-dens, not only for its shape, but for its fragrance as well.
Various views with changing position
Gallery in Lingering Park
First stunning View
Lingering Garden
The Lion Grove Garden
Master of the Nets Garden
Building Forms, Types and Materials Ting, Tang (Hall)
The main building in a garden, generally large in size. This was the place for the owner of the garden to meet his visitors or to entertain his guests. It is generally located at the transitional spot between the residential quarters and the garden , and usu-ally at the most conspicuous point. There are several kinds of halls, all with different functional characteristics. The flowery hall usually has its own quiet and indipendent courtyards deco-rated with trees, flowers, rocks and stones.
Guan, Xuan (Hall, Veranda)
Originally, guan meant guest house. From the Ming and Qing Dynasties onwards, the term gradually lost its primay meaning. Judging from the function of such buildings still existing today, they were actually small chambers for receiving guests or for rest and relaxation. A guan is smaller in size than a hall, and has its own quiet and indipendent courtyards, which is gener-ally conveniently linked to the main hall.
The original meaning of xuan was a protruding space in front of a hall, covered with a round-bridge roof. Later, the term came to mean any building sited at a high open space. A good example is Wenmuxuxiang Xuan (Smelling Sweet Osmanthus Veranda) in Liuyuan Garden. It is a small open building on top of the hill in the west part of the garden connected on bothsides with a roofed walkway.
Lou (Storied Building/Tower), Ge (Storied Pavilion/Tower) Both lou and ge are storied buildings, and so taller than the other buildings in a garden. they are generally placed at the pe-riphery so as not to segment the spatial integrity of the garden, and also to provide a convenient spot for obtaining a panoramic view of the entire garden or for enjoying the scenery in the dis-tance.
Ting (Pavilion)
The most popular type of building at scenic spots, the pavilion is practically a symbol of the Chinese garden. they are general-ly small in size, comparativegeneral-ly simple in construction, and boast a great varity of shapes. Pavilions are generally open on all sides,but they are sometimes given walls. the pavilion Wuzhuy-ouju in Zhuozhengyuan Garden, for example, has walls with moon-shaped door opennings, which serve as perfect frames for the scenery in the garden. Pavilions, whether built on top of hills, by the side of water, amid trees and flowers, or just on a flat piece of land, are always in perfect harmony with the sur-rounding environment. that is why they were so widely used in gardens.
Lang (Roofed Walkway)
Functionally, roofed walkways not only provide shelter against the elements, but also serve as a link between individual build-ings, and were widely used in palaces, temples residential compounds, and in gardens as well. In addition, a roofed walk-way in a garden can also serve to devide space up or as a route for tour. When built along the waterside, a roofed walkway can also be referred to as a “water roofed walkway”, of which there is an example in the western part of Zhuozhengyuan Garden. The fact that this type winds along the water’s edge lends it a light and airy character. those built on hillsides, rising and falling
according to the topography of the land, are called “hill-ascending roofed walkways”, and can often be found in private gardens. they were usually built to climb over grand rockeries along the periphery of the garden.
Xie (Waterside Pavilion)
The xie to be seen in private gardens today were practically all built by the waterside. they are open on one or three sides, and somtimes built out into water and supported by wooden piles. Funtionally, it was purely for enjoying the scenery in the garden. Balustrades with seats lower down were generally built on the side of the pavilion facing the water. the full length doors or win-dows could be dismantled in summer time and re-intalled in the cold season. Fang (land boat)
This was a kind of building erected on the water’s edge, and took the form of a painted boat. the head of the boat would usually be built into the water like the Huafang Zhai (Painted Boat Studio) in Yiyuan Garden. The Outward form of a fang resembles a real boat, and is usually devided into the front back and middle sections. the front section generally has a round-ridge roof, the middle section always forming the main body of the buildings. the rear section is often a two-storied building with a hip-and-gable roof. The head of the fang is always a little higher and has a hip-and-gable roof as well. The part below water is built of stone, whereas wood was used for the construction of the upper part, giving theimpression of a eal boat floating on the water.
bridges
In addition to providing a means of crossing the water, bridges play a more significant role as a decorative element in gardens. They make the water scenery look depper and more intricate by sectorizing the water surface. Moreover, the shape of the bridges themselves and the reflections they cast in the water are fascinating.
Part 3 Projects
SITE: SONGZHUANG ART VILLAGE
BEIJING
CENTRE
SONG-
ZHUANG
Introduction of SongZhuang
Located in Tong Zhou District, eastern outskirts of Beijing, Songzhuang is the most famous and biggest artist community in China. The first artists moved here including Yue Minjun and Fang Lijun,in the early 1990’s, having been driven out of another community near the Old Summer Palace in Beijing’s north-west. For more than 10 years these artists were virtual outcasts with much of their work politically inspired, lived and worked under the watchful eye of communist authorities. With the booming of Chinese art market, Songzhuang is undergoing a dramatic expansion of artist population which has reached to 4000 in year 2008.
Songzhuang is 13km away from CBD of Beijing, in early 1990s, the artist moved form Summer Palace Artist Village to Song-zhuang to escape from the crounds, the building form of SongZhuang is very traditional courtyards built by bricks and wood. And there are 2 rivers running through and make it a very peaceful place to live.
Now SONGZHUANG Artist Village has become one of the largest artist community in modern China, many renowned artist has been invited to host exhibitions, and many new museums and gallerys has been built to fullfill the growing needs of the art industry.
While there is already a problem for beijing centre to have the vast residence living inside, the subcentre around is needed, SongZhunang is becoming more and more like a sub-centre for artists and creative industry.
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Gallery and Museums Newly Built Housing For Artists?
MATERIAL REFERENCE
Chinese Ceremic Tile
Timber Sliding Louvers
Perforated Mental Mesh
GROUND FLOOR PLAN
peach flower woods gateway
lotus fragrance hall bamboo sound path
FACADE
south facade
SECTION
section1-1
SECTION
section3-3
