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Home » Opinion » Foreign Views
Tapping ancient wisdom for easy and green living
By Ruan Yisan |
January 27, 2011, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE ancient wisdom of traditional Chinese architecture should be applied to modern residential buildings because it can make the houses safer, more comfortable and environmentally friendly.
Ancient Chinese buildings particularly emphasized the harmonious relationship between human beings and nature. Ancestors revered nature and believed that those who conformed to natural principles would prosper, while those who defied them would perish.
They understood that human beings should adapt themselves to the natural environment rather than damage the environment for their own convenience. To incorporate respect for the natural world in their buildings, they imitated the natural environment in building houses and created traditional Chinese architectural styles.
First, wooden structures should be studied by our generation, because they were more stable and safer in earthquakes.
The teno-and-mortise structure that Chinese architects invented 6,000 years ago is the most important building technique that we inherit from ancient architecture. A mortise-and-tenon joint is a joint made by inserting a tenon on one piece into mortise holes in another.
Ancient architects used tenon and mortise to connect wooden beams and create stable structures. Africans built the first wooden building 2,000 years earlier, but they simply used cane to bind the wood together.
Many ancient wooden buildings had no metal rivets, but they could survive for centuries.
The Yingxian Pagoda in Shanxi Province, the oldest extant fully wooden pagoda in China, was built in 1056 and survived earthquakes; it still stands today.
The tenon-and-mortise structure is similar to human joints that allowed the whole building to sway slightly during earthquakes, minimizing as much as possible the impact to the building.
It is Chinese wisdom to conquer strong power with soft.
For instance, after the 7.4-magnitude earthquake in Lijiang, Yunnan Province, in 1996, most wooden buildings in the Pingyao and Lijiang ancient towns survived, but all the recently constructed steel and concrete buildings collapsed.
Wooden structures also survived in the devastating 8.0-magnitude Sichuan earthquake in 2008. Many wooden buildings in the Zhaohua ancient town in Guangyuan City, one of the worst-hit cities in the province, survived. They were badly damaged but did not collapse. The town was established in China's Three Kingdoms Period (220-280 AD) while the wooden buildings were restored in 2007.
Sky well
Second, modern residential architects should retain the sky well tianjing, or enclosed courtyard, that was widely used in traditional Chinese houses.
Chinese ancestors thought human beings could never be apart from nature, so they built the tianjing in their houses - an open space in the middle of the house where sunshine could shine and rain could fall.
Almost all traditional houses in China have this courtyard. The structures are called shikumen, stone-gated house) in Shanghai and siheyuan, four-sided courtyard) in Beijing. In southern Fujian Province, the courtyard appeared in tulou, or ring-shaped packed earth buildings for dozens of families. The central public space brought neighbors together and encouraged people to live like a big family.
Because of the courtyard, traditional Chinese wooden buildings usually don't need air-conditioners, especially in summer, because the courtyard allows the breeze to circulate.
Families sat together in the courtyard in summer to dine and chat while enjoying the cool.
Passing boats
Third, modern residential buildings should be designed in line with nature, especially in relation to waterways, for fire safety, aesthetics and pleasure.
In some ancient towns such as Zhouzhuang and Tongli, south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, residents can see boats passing in front of their windows. People living in modern cities like Shanghai never enjoy this poetic picture.
The rivers also help in flood prevention and rainwater control.
The ancient city of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province once had 59 kilometers of waterway that could distribute the water quickly during rainy seasons.
But after half of the waterways had been filled in to widen the streets for more vehicles in 1972, the city was flooded during a downpour.
The city government built four big pumps to remove water during heavy rain, but still could not solve the flooding problem. There was no choice but to dig out the waterways again.
The tenon-and-mortise construction made houses more stable while the courtyard structure created a comfortable living environment. However, people nowadays have discarded the great inventions of Chinese ancestors and seem to learn only from Western architectural styles.
When I studied architecture in university more than 50 years ago, we learned how to create buildings with a wooden structure, but nowadays that chapter has been skipped.
Developers eager for instant profits would never choose traditional building structures because what they want are large numbers of buildings, built close together at low cost.
The buildings in which we live today are built in rows, rather than being enclosed structures, like Beijing's quadrangle courtyards where people can fully feel the warmth of family reunion.
(The author is director of the National Research Center of Historic Cities and professor of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning of Tongji University.)
Ancient Chinese buildings particularly emphasized the harmonious relationship between human beings and nature. Ancestors revered nature and believed that those who conformed to natural principles would prosper, while those who defied them would perish.
They understood that human beings should adapt themselves to the natural environment rather than damage the environment for their own convenience. To incorporate respect for the natural world in their buildings, they imitated the natural environment in building houses and created traditional Chinese architectural styles.
First, wooden structures should be studied by our generation, because they were more stable and safer in earthquakes.
The teno-and-mortise structure that Chinese architects invented 6,000 years ago is the most important building technique that we inherit from ancient architecture. A mortise-and-tenon joint is a joint made by inserting a tenon on one piece into mortise holes in another.
Ancient architects used tenon and mortise to connect wooden beams and create stable structures. Africans built the first wooden building 2,000 years earlier, but they simply used cane to bind the wood together.
Many ancient wooden buildings had no metal rivets, but they could survive for centuries.
The Yingxian Pagoda in Shanxi Province, the oldest extant fully wooden pagoda in China, was built in 1056 and survived earthquakes; it still stands today.
The tenon-and-mortise structure is similar to human joints that allowed the whole building to sway slightly during earthquakes, minimizing as much as possible the impact to the building.
It is Chinese wisdom to conquer strong power with soft.
For instance, after the 7.4-magnitude earthquake in Lijiang, Yunnan Province, in 1996, most wooden buildings in the Pingyao and Lijiang ancient towns survived, but all the recently constructed steel and concrete buildings collapsed.
Wooden structures also survived in the devastating 8.0-magnitude Sichuan earthquake in 2008. Many wooden buildings in the Zhaohua ancient town in Guangyuan City, one of the worst-hit cities in the province, survived. They were badly damaged but did not collapse. The town was established in China's Three Kingdoms Period (220-280 AD) while the wooden buildings were restored in 2007.
Sky well
Second, modern residential architects should retain the sky well tianjing, or enclosed courtyard, that was widely used in traditional Chinese houses.
Chinese ancestors thought human beings could never be apart from nature, so they built the tianjing in their houses - an open space in the middle of the house where sunshine could shine and rain could fall.
Almost all traditional houses in China have this courtyard. The structures are called shikumen, stone-gated house) in Shanghai and siheyuan, four-sided courtyard) in Beijing. In southern Fujian Province, the courtyard appeared in tulou, or ring-shaped packed earth buildings for dozens of families. The central public space brought neighbors together and encouraged people to live like a big family.
Because of the courtyard, traditional Chinese wooden buildings usually don't need air-conditioners, especially in summer, because the courtyard allows the breeze to circulate.
Families sat together in the courtyard in summer to dine and chat while enjoying the cool.
Passing boats
Third, modern residential buildings should be designed in line with nature, especially in relation to waterways, for fire safety, aesthetics and pleasure.
In some ancient towns such as Zhouzhuang and Tongli, south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, residents can see boats passing in front of their windows. People living in modern cities like Shanghai never enjoy this poetic picture.
The rivers also help in flood prevention and rainwater control.
The ancient city of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province once had 59 kilometers of waterway that could distribute the water quickly during rainy seasons.
But after half of the waterways had been filled in to widen the streets for more vehicles in 1972, the city was flooded during a downpour.
The city government built four big pumps to remove water during heavy rain, but still could not solve the flooding problem. There was no choice but to dig out the waterways again.
The tenon-and-mortise construction made houses more stable while the courtyard structure created a comfortable living environment. However, people nowadays have discarded the great inventions of Chinese ancestors and seem to learn only from Western architectural styles.
When I studied architecture in university more than 50 years ago, we learned how to create buildings with a wooden structure, but nowadays that chapter has been skipped.
Developers eager for instant profits would never choose traditional building structures because what they want are large numbers of buildings, built close together at low cost.
The buildings in which we live today are built in rows, rather than being enclosed structures, like Beijing's quadrangle courtyards where people can fully feel the warmth of family reunion.
(The author is director of the National Research Center of Historic Cities and professor of the College of Architecture and Urban Planning of Tongji University.)
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