Rethinking the Proportional Design Principles of Timber-Framed Buddhist Buildings in the Goryeo Era

Ju-Hwan Cha,Young-Jae Kim

doi:10.3390/rel12110985

Abstract

This study examines how the wooden architecture of the Goryeo Dynasty in Korea evolved in an original way while incorporating Chinese architectural principles. For the Goryeo Era’s timber-framed buildings, eave purlin height was determined according to √2H times the eave column height (H), while the eave column height influenced the proportional location of each purlin, determined by the √2H times decrease rate in the cross-section. Thus, eave column height was proportionately connected to a geometric sequence with a common ratio of √2H. This technical approach, achieved using an L-square ruler and a drawing compass, contributed to determining eave purlin and ridge post placement, bracket system height, and outermost bay width. This study notes that the practical works were consistently preserved in East Asian Buddhist architecture, in that a universal rule of proportion was applied to buildings constructed during the Tang–Song and the Goryeo Dynasties, surmounting differences in local construction methods. These design principles were a vestige of socio-cultural exchange on the East Asian continent and a minimal step toward the establishment of structurally safe framed buildings.

Highlights

This study shows that a universal construction method exists and confirms that it has been used in regions of East Asia, such as Korea and China, for a long time
This study examined nine existing buildings constructed at the height of the Goryeo. Dynasty regarding their use of common mathematical rules as design doctrines related to the column purlin height above the bracket sets
The authors compared these buildings to timber-framed buildings from ancient China and found that they commonly used the ratio of 2H× eave column height (H) to construct a wooden-frame work

Summary

Introduction

This study shows that a universal construction method exists and confirms that it has been used in regions of East Asia, such as Korea and China, for a long time. The universal design principle was combined with and adapted to vernacular exiting methods over time. In comparison with ancient Chinese buildings in the same period, this study confirms that Goryeo architecture demonstrates certain commonalities and differences, sharing common universality and adjusting differences in regional construction methods. In both the East and the West, ancient people applied certain architectural objects and real numbers in building design. Concerns regarding the fundamentals of beauty and proportionality provide parallels between Western classical orders following the Vitruvian module (Vitruvius Pollio and Morgan 1960; Stevens 1990; Kim 2016) and East Asian classical works on mathematics, such as the Zhoubi Suanjing 周髀算經

Objectives

Methods

Conclusion