CHINESE ARCHITECTURE

As an ancient country, China has a huge amount of cultural treasure and architecture is seen as solid form of it. Chinese architecture is a style of architecture that has taken shape in East Asia over many centuries. Many basic principles of Chinese architecture have remained stable for centuries. Besides, Chinese architecture also has had a major influence on the architectural styles of Korea, Vietnam, and Japan.

The structure of Chinese ancient architecture is extremely complicated due to the reason that most constructions are made of wood. Generally, these ancient buildings have the following parts: Foundations, Structural beams, Structural connections, Walls, Roofs, Roof apex and Roof top decorations. The animation below can show you how complicated these buildings are.

Traditional Chinese buildings have tile roofs with swooping eaves. Walls are usually made of brick or wood. The tile roofs are gray for ordinary buildings, yellow for imperial palaces and blue or green for other important structures. The upturned eaves are elaborately carved with extraordinary detail and are works of art in their own right. Sometimes bells hang from the eaves.

Bracket set: Most architecture of ancient China is timber framed with the use of joinery and doweling, seldom with glue or nails. This kind of connection can be stable and resist bending and torsion. Dougong, also called Bracket set, is a typical mode of this kind of connection. Using wood as structural members allow the buildings to slide, flex, and hinge while absorbing shock, vibration, and ground shift from earthquakes without significant damage to its structure.