Chinese Architecture
Rapid economic development and city expansion in contemporary China have brought numerous opportunities for architects both inside and outside China.
Whether they are architects form the Chinese mainland or famous international architects, their preoccupations are about trying to find appropriate design concepts, principles and methods in such a rapidly changing environment.
Front of the Ningbo Museum of Art in Zhejiang Province, China
In the last five years, the overwhelming wave of globalization has swept every corner of the world and China has already started to catch this wave, especially with the construction of a series of projects for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.
At the same time, with the rapid development of the economy and the continuous improvement of living standards, exploring local methods and means of expression has become a preoccupation for more architects.
Across China, the call to retain local traditions -architects who attach importance to local requirements- while at the same time embracing cotemporary modernity is becoming more and more intense.
They are not imitating the so-called “global standard” blindly, but manage, with great effort and perception, to retain diversity and personality in their architecture for the ultimate benefit of the people they are building for.
Modern Chinese Architecture
Modern Chinese architecture generally refers to the architecture built since the middle period of the 19th century.
During the period from the broke out of Opium War in 1840 to establishment of Peoples Republic of China in 1949, Chinese architecture witnessed a blend in Chinese style and western style. Although the traditional Chinese architectural system still took the dominant role,
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Famous Ancient Buildings
Imperial Palaces
As symbols of an emperors ultimate power and control, highlights of the dignity of imperial power, and relics reflecting the royals extravagant material lifestyles, grand palaces were always built in large, dramatic scale. For thousands of years, successive emperors spared no labor, material, or money to build majestic palaces for themselves and their images to be carr
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Features of Ancient Chinese Architecture
STRUCTURAL FLEXIBILITY
The chief building material of ancient Chinese buildings is wood. The components are mainly columns, beams, and purlins that are connected by tenons and mortises. As a result, the wooden structure is quite flexible. The ancient Chinese wooden building possesses a unique design found only in China, termed dougong (i.e., a system of brackets inserted between the top
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History of Chinese Architecture
Very little of the architecture from Chinas rich cultural past has survived; it either decayed itself due to the impermanence of the building methods employed at the time, fell victim to the ravages of war or natural disasters (floods, fires, earthquakes, etc.), or was demolished in order to make way for newer structures. Most of what we know of Chinese architecture from its earliest beginnings
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Chinese Garden
The first Chinese imperial gardens date back from the Zhou Dynasty (c. 1050256 BC) to more than 3,000 years. It had at first a mystic origin having for symbols the mountain, the sea and the islands according to a legend which put side by side the Chinese garden with the Paradise in the world; Paradise which thrones at the top of the big mountain, on the distant islands in the middle of the se
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More Topics on Chinese Architecture
- Traditional design and practices for building Chinese wooden arch bridges
- Chinese traditional architectural craftsmanship for timber framed structures
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