Ancient Chinese Architecture Research Articles

Cultural heritage preservation using new media methods: Yingxian Wooden Pagoda, China

<p>Architectural landmarks that represent a culture’s identity are also sanctuaries for cultural heritage preservation. The tallest and oldest wooden multi-story structure in the world, the Yingxian Wooden Pagoda of China is tilting at an ongoing rate that requires an urgency to find solutions to revert the damage. To preserve the evolving humanistic and artistic understandings of ancient Chinese architecture, and to cultivate the scientific reasoning behind ancient Chinese carpentry, <em>new media </em>allows digital and computational methods to replace human users who once manually analyzed data and information from cultural sites and artifacts. This article will exemplify <em>new media</em> tools such as animation via 3D/2D modeling, 3D scanning and virtual reality photography to examine material evidence of the Yingxian Wooden Pagoda of China, and the role <em>new media </em>can assist in its fight to sustain its originality since 1056.</p><p>Highlights:</p><ul><li>Examination, documentation, research and education of architectural heritage sites using new media methods.</li><li>Integration of old archives and digital/computational software to represent the outstanding value of the oldest and tallest wooden skyscraper in the world.</li><li>Use of 2D/3D modelling and virtual reality photography developing information to increase awareness on cultural heritage sites suffering wood deterioration.</li></ul><p> </p>

A Study on the Translation of Architecture in Hong Lou Meng

With the development of globalization, cultural exchanges have been widely concerned. And the translation of Chinese literary works has become a trend. Due to the pivotal position of architecture name in literary works, coupled with the rich connotations and communicative function, architectural translation is of great. The building names in the classical novel Hong Lou Meng contained meaningful Chinese cultural connotations，so when translating these names，the literature and culture elements should be taken into consideration. This paper makes a comparative study between Yang Xianyi’s and Hawkes’ translation on the base of language and culture, picking up some typical buildings to do the case study and exploring the charm of Chinese ancient architecture culture. At last, in the hope of giving some reference to the practical translation process, the paper will give some suggestions in some architecture translation.

Analysis on extraction methods of Chinese ancient architectural elements

The language of ancient Chinese architecture includes materials, structures and art of ancient Chinese architecture. The classical architectural language is recast as the motif, part of the essence is copied from the noumenon of architecture and passed on to the new architecture, making the new architecture not only have certain historical and cultural significance, but also have contemporary characteristics, which is the current exploration direction of regional architecture. This paper expounds the methods of extracting the motif of Chinese ancient architectural elements in contemporary Chinese modern architectural design, hoping to provide some directions for future traditional architectural design.

Design and development of a maintenance and virtual training system for ancient Chinese architecture

Ancient Chinese architecture is an important aspect of traditional Chinese culture and has been studied by many scholars around the world via historical documents, photographs, and three-dimensiona...

Design and development of a maintenance and virtual training system for ancient Chinese architecture

Ancient Chinese architecture is an important aspect of traditional Chinese culture and has been studied by many scholars around the world via historical documents, photographs, and three-dimensional models. In this paper, a building information model (BIM) and virtual reality (VR) and video analysing technology are used to develop a maintenance and virtual training system for ancient architecture. A digital ancient architecture model that includes a three-dimensional model and attributes is established, and the model can be visualized using a VR video processing system. Based on this system, we propose a method of fire detection in the maintenance system to ensure the safety of ancient buildings. After performing lightweight processing of the three-dimensional model, the Forge platform, which can achieve high-speed browsing via Web browsers, is used to perform the virtual construction, dismantling and other functions. By providing an immersive experience, users will develop a deeper understanding of ancient architectural structures and construction processes, which will accelerate research on ancient architecture.

Ancient Chinese architecture 3D preservation by merging ground and aerial point clouds

Ancient Chinese architecture 3D digitalization and documentation is a challenging task for the image based modeling community due to its architectural complexity and structural delicacy. Currently, an effective approach to ancient Chinese architecture 3D reconstruction is to merge the two point clouds, separately obtained from ground and aerial images by the SfM technique. There are two understanding issues should be specially addressed: (1) it is difficult to find the point matches between the images from different sources due to their remarkable variations in viewpoint and scale; (2) due to the inevitable drift phenomenon in any SfM reconstruction process, the resulting two point clouds are no longer strictly related by a single similarity transformation as it should be theoretically. To address these two issues, a new point cloud merging method is proposed in this work. Our method has the following characteristics: (1) the images are matched by leveraging sparse mesh based image synthesis; (2) the putative point matches are filtered by geometrical consistency check and geometrical model verification; and (3) the two point clouds are merged via bundle adjustment by linking the ground-to-aerial tracks. Extensive experiments show that our method outperforms many of the state-of-the-art approaches in terms of ground-to-aerial image matching and point cloud merging.

Experimental study on the fire performance of straight-line dovetail joints

To study the fire performance of the common dovetail joint in Chinese ancient architecture, we performed fire exposure and fire resistance tests of straight-line dovetail joints. The fire exposure test shows that the contact part of the dovetail joint was hardly charred because the gap between them is small. In the reference test, the displacement linearly varies with the load when the dovetail joint is fully pressed together. In the fire test, fire retardant coating can improve the fire resistance of the specimen, and its fire protection effect is remarkable. With the increase in load, the fire resistance of specimens obviously decreases. The effect of a tiny 2–4 mm gap between the tenon and the mortise on heat transfer is notably limited. The load level does not significantly affect the speed of temperature increase.

Component-driven pocedural modeling for ancient Chinese architecture of the Qing Dynasty

ABSTRACTA component-driven procedural modeling approach for Qing Dynasty architecture is presented. Our work includes two aspects: characteristics of Qing Dynasty architecture and the module of “bucket mouth system” in Gongcheng zuofa zeli (Qing Department 1733) are illustrated in detail; a systematic scheme for component-driven procedural modeling approach is given, including the technical details of the component library, data-driven component/model extraction from point clouds, and multilevel description of component assembly. The innovation of our work is that a component-driven procedural modeling approach constrained by “bucket mouth system” is presented and applied to modeling of Qing Dynasty architecture. In order to fully verify the application efficiency of the research in the field of virtual realization and digital protection of ancient Chinese architecture, modeling of various Qing style buildings including their inner structures and generation of typical Qing Dynasty courtyard layouts are shown in detail. The usefulness of the work is therefore in various aspects, from architectural heritage conservation and management to research and dissemination.

Research on Passive Energy - saving Renovation of the Roof of Traditional Residences

With the rapid development of social economy and people’s living standards continue to improve, summer air-conditioning energy consumption has gradually become the focus of modern society energy consumption. At the same time, the traditional residences are an important part of the ancient Chinese architecture culture and heritage, which contain rich experience in ecological construction, but limited to the economic level and construction technology at that time, and the traditional residences have their flaws. As one of the largest energy consumption of the envelope, the roof is the need for renovation. In this paper, energy-saving renovation of the demonstration building on the town of Chongqing was taken as an example. It puts forward the practice of using the controllable ceiling and uses DesignBuilder software to compare the energy consumption before and after the transformation and the indoor temperature in summer. The results show that the building energy efficiency rate is 54.35%, and the cumulative percentage of the length of the temperature of bedroom1 over 30 ℃, while over 28 ℃ is reduced by 7%. The cumulative percentage of the intermediate bedroom temperature over 30 ℃ is reduced by 16 %, and over 28 ℃ by 12%. By taking the control of the ceiling to reduce the cumulative time of the indoor high temperature, which can be delayed air conditioning opening time by the next day, to achieve energy-saving effect.

Data-Driven Modeling for Chinese Ancient Architecture

Abstract The existing 3D modeling studies of Chinese ancient architecture are mostly procedure driven and rely on fixed construction rules. Therefore, these methods have limited applications in virtual reality (VR) engineering. We propose a data-driven approach to synthesize 3D models from existing 3D data that provides more flexibility and fills the gap between academic studies and VR engineering. First, 3D architecture models were preprocessed and decomposed into components, and the components were clustered by their geometric features. Second, a Bayesian network was generated by learning from the dataset to represent the internal relationships between the architectural components. Third, the inference results of the trained network were utilized to generate a reasonable relationship matching to support the synthesis of the structural components. The proposed method can be used in 3D content creation for VR development and directly supports VR applications in practice.

THE MONITORING AND ANALYSIS OF THE CHINESE TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURE PAINTING DECAY – THE CASE OF JILAN PAVILION IN THE SUMMER PALACE

Abstract. The painting is one of the most decorative elements of ancient Chinese architecture and it is sensitive to the natural environment. The outdoor painting is very easily to be affected by the natural environment and its color is easily to decay. In order to study the relationship between the painting decay and the physical environment, the two paintings on both east and west inner eaves of Jilan Pavilion beside the Kunming Lake in Summer Palace are taken as the research objects, because these two paintings are painted at the same period but their decay degrees are greatly different. Since 2013, the research group regularly monitors the color decay of these two paintings. Meanwhile, the physical environment around these two paintings has been monitored. Based on the analysis of the monitor data, it can be seen that the illumination is the major factor that causes the decay of the painting. Meanwhile, by using the ECOTECT software to stimulate the light environment around the Jilan Pavilion, it can be seen that it is the mirror reflection of the lake that causes the result that the illumination of the west eave (face east) is stronger than that of the east eave (face west).

THE IMPACT OF INTANGIBLE FACTORS IN SHAPING THE IDENTITY OF ANCIENT CITIES AND ARCHITECTURE OF CHINA

China is an immense nation and highest population on earth with incredible civilization, it kept up its character over millenniums in spite of its different ethnic gatherings and distinctive geographical conditions. The Ancient Chinese architecture and urban planning are fundamental units of the world architecture and well known of their particular character. In addition, they were an extraordinary wellspring of motivation for some neighbouring nations. Several factors were behind the momentous Chinese architecture and urban planning, and among those was the emperor guidance who unified the government and encouraged regularity in many aspect in Chinese architecture including city planning. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of nonphysical factors such as Chinese culture and beliefs in shaping the distinct identity of ancient Chinese cities. This is done by studying; feng shui notion, Yin and Yan forces, the theory of five elements and other Metaphysics philosophies of China. Furthermore, this paper scrutinises a number of Chinese ancient capital cities and temples of heaven in Beijing as case studies to measure to what extent the intangible factors contributed in shaping the identity and layout of Chinese cities and architecture.

THE IMPACT OF INTANGIBLE FACTORS IN SHAPING THE IDENTITY OF ANCIENT CITIES AND ARCHITECTURE OF CHINA

China is an immense nation and highest population on earth with incredible civilization, it kept up its character over millenniums in spite of its different ethnic gatherings and distinctive geographical conditions. The Ancient Chinese architecture and urban planning are fundamental units of the world architecture and well known of their particular character. In addition, they were an extraordinary wellspring of motivation for some neighbouring nations. Several factors were behind the momentous Chinese architecture and urban planning, and among those was the emperor guidance who unified the government and encouraged regularity in many aspect in Chinese architecture including city planning. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of nonphysical factors such as Chinese culture and beliefs in shaping the distinct identity of ancient Chinese cities. This is done by studying; feng shui notion, Yin and Yan forces, the theory of five elements and other Metaphysics philosophies of China. Furthermore, this paper scrutinises a number of Chinese ancient capital cities and temples of heaven in Beijing as case studies to measure to what extent the intangible factors contributed in shaping the identity and layout of Chinese cities and architecture.

Research of Ancient Architectures in Jin-Fen Area Based on GIS&BIM Technology

The number of well-preserved ancient buildings located in Shanxi Province, enjoying the absolute maximum proportion of ancient architectures in China, is about 18418, among which, 9053 buildings have the structural style of wood frame. The value of the application of BIM (Building Information Modeling) and GIS (Geographic Information System) is gradually probed and testified in the corresponding fields of ancient architecture’s spatial distribution information management, routine maintenance and special conservation & restoration, the evaluation and simulation of related disasters, such as earthquake. The research objects are ancient architectures in JIN-FEN area, which were first investigated by Sicheng LIANG and recorded in his work of “Chinese ancient architectures survey report”. The research objects, i.e. the ancient architectures in Jin-Fen area include those in Sicheng LIANG’s investigation, and further adjustments were made through authors’ on-site investigation and literature searching & collection. During this research process, the spatial distributing Geodatabase of research objects is established utilizing GIS. The BIM components library for ancient buildings is formed combining on-site investigation data and precedent classic works, such as “Yingzao Fashi”, a treatise on architectural methods in Song Dynasty, “Yongle Encyclopedia” and “Gongcheng Zuofa Zeli”, case collections of engineering practice, by the Ministry of Construction of Qing Dynasty. A building of Guangsheng temple in Hongtong county is selected as an example to elaborate the BIM model construction process based on the BIM components library for ancient buildings. Based on the foregoing work results of spatial distribution data, attribute data of features, 3D graphic information and parametric building information model, the information management system for ancient architectures in Jin-Fen Area, utilizing GIS&BIM technology, could be constructed to support the further research of seismic disaster analysis and seismic performance simulation.

Tectonic Traditions in Ancient Chinese Architecture, and Their Development

Archaeological discoveries have enriched our understanding of the tectonic traditions that underlie the evolution of ancient building technologies. In ancient China, the natural environment, in particular local climate and abundant building materials, along with the development of agricultural tools, shaped the unique local architectural types referred to as Jinggan, earth constructions that originated in the north of China, and Ganlan and Chuandou that originated in the south. This paper discusses the origin and evolution of each building type, as well as the process of merging the wood-based frames developed in the south of China with the earth-and-wood frames developed in the north. This new integration enabled an advanced jointing technology connecting wood columns and beams, and resulted in the wooden structural Tailiang method for the synthesis of framed and piled-up structures. We therefore argue that, on the basis of examples of such fusion in China as well as in other east Asian countries, integration was established via a strong vernacular foundation building on architectural tectonic recognition that helps us understand ancient Asian architecture.

The Study on Timber Pier Columns Strengthened with Cfrp Hoops in Ancient Architecture

Timber structure is the mainstream method of ancient Chinese architecture. However due to the effect of weathering and long history, it was badly damaged. Therefore, the protective repairing is imminent. The traditional reinforcement method of pier columns strengthened with iron sheet presents unsatisfactory performance in recovering the bearing capacity, and the study on Carbon Fibre Reinforced Plastics (CFRP) material applying in strengthening pier column is relatively lacking. This paper studied the mechanical properties of 20 timber columns, 17 of which used the CFRP for reinforcement, and one specimen is strengthened with iron sheet. With the maximum bearing capacity of reinforcement columns with CFRP recovering up to 103.22%, the research proves reasonable arrangement of CFRP hoops and suitable strengthening quantity of CFRP could get commendable reinforcement results. Finally, considering the effect of the pier type on the bearing capacity of pier columns, this paper puts forward a more accurate and universal formula compared to Su model, which provides theoretical foundation for restoration projects of ancient architecture.

A Study on the Classification and Value of Ming Dynasty Paifang in China: A Case Study of Paifang in Jinxi County

Paifang, a form of ancient Chinese vernacular architecture integrated with engraving and calligraphy, serves both as monuments and landmarks, features a variety of social functions and expresses rich cultural connotations, and is thus hailed as historical records made of stone. As the stone paifang in Jinxi are numerous and well-preserved, this paper, based on fieldwork, takes eight typical examples of paifang built in the Ming Dynasty as its subjects of study and conducts an analysis on them from the perspectives of geographical and historical distribution as well as classification, and then based on this assesses the cultural heritage value of paifang from three aspects, namely, historical value, artistic value and scientific value. The findings are as follows: First, the building forms of paifang enjoy suitability and versatility for their functions. Second, the function types of paifang reflect the ideology and values of the feudal ruling class. And last, paifang displays the epochal character of architectural and artistic features and the social and economic backgrounds of that era.

Rule-Based Generation of Ancient Chinese Architecture from the Song Dynasty

Ancient Chinese architecture from the Song dynasty is a prominent example of the ancient oriental architectures. The cai-fen system was a module system used for the carpentry of Song architectures, which was specified by the governmental manual, the Yingzao Fashi (State Building Standards) compiled by Li Jie [1103]. We present a rule-based approach for generation of ancient Chinese architectures from the Song dynasty. Based on the special module system and the hierarchical topology of structural patterns in traditional Chinese architectures, the approach parameterizes the wooden elements of buildings and formalizes the construction rules for different architecture styles. In the approach, XML-based description files are generated for displaying the construction process. What the approach generates are standard architectures that strictly follow the ancient Chinese governmental manual. To demonstrate the efficiency of our approach, architectures in different styles have been generated based on their corresponding rules. The fundamental difference between our approach and previous works is that we apply and implement the module system in digitalization of ancient Chinese architecture.

Experimental study and theoretical analysis of carbon fibre-reinforced polymer strengthening timber pier column

Timber structure is a mainstream form of ancient Chinese architecture. However, owing to factors such as weathering and long-time duration, most of the wooden structures have been damaged badly. Using iron hoops to enhance the original structures is the traditional method for pier reinforcement, which produces limited effects. In this paper, the new reinforcement materials carbon fibre-reinforced polymer used for strengthening short pier column have been studied. We designed nine timber columns, among which eight applied the carbon fibre-reinforced polymer for reinforcement. With the maximum bearing capacity of the hoop reinforcement columns increased by 20·7%, the research proved that hoop carbon fibre-reinforced polymer has reinforcement effect on axial compression columns. Finally, this paper analysed the short pier column strengthen by carbon fibre-reinforced polymer in theory and derived the calculation formula. In compression with test results from experiments and combining the theoretical analysis, the paper concludes the feasibility of using carbon fibre-reinforced polymer for timber structure reinforcement.

Study of Ultimate Displacement of Timber Structures in Chinese Ancient Buildings

The available methods to determine the ultimate displacement of the building structures have been put forward, and the disadvantages of the methods are analyzed. According to the seismic design theory based on displacement of structures and reinforcement standard of Chinese ancient architecture, which refers to the modern structural engineering requirements, the ultimate displacement of the timber structure on Chinese ancient buildings, which is under the obvious P-∆ second-order effects, has been studied. The ultimate displacement and the drift ratio limit value of different axial compression ratio are determined by the experiments and Theoretical calculation. The results of the study of ultimate displacement can provide the technical support for the rehabilitation of the ancient timber buildings.