Upland Dwellings in Sichuan-Chongqing Region

“Travelling in Sichuan and Chongqing is harder than scaling the blue sky.”The Sichuan-Chongqing region has been famous for the precipitous terrain since ancient times. Hence the residences in the Sichuan-Chongqing region are linked with the uneven terrain. In terms of layouts, there is still the axis in the main house, but the sizes of secondary houses and courtyards are not the same. The houses in this region are built to adapt to the physical features of the land and are generally classified into the following types: Terrace: This is applied on the steep mountainside, where a level shelf of land interrupting a declivity is constructed, like a flight of steps, forming broad platforms. The houses can thus be built on the terraces. Seen from afar, it is an amazing sight to behold.

Balcony: Applied to a narrow terrain for the purpose of expanding indoor space by adding a balcony tower or balcony corridor to the house.

Steps: Applied on the flat portion of a hillside where the house is built perpendicular to the natural incline of the slope. This is usually used in building a residence’s side rooms. The roof in the form of steps seems lively.

Slope: Houses are also built perpendicular to the incline of the slope. Used on a hillside that is not as steep as the one for “steps.”This is solely to separate the floors of the interior of the house into different heights to maintain the overall continuity of the roof.

Annex: This involves extending the back of the roof and creating annexes to the existing house. This is usually used to extend the space of the side rooms.The annexes built may become much lower than the existing side rooms.

Hanging room: As it is difficult to increase the depth of the house when building it on a slope,a room is added by having it built to suspend or hang off from a room on the upper level to create more space. The hanging room can also function as an awning for the entrance located on the ground levelwith a more lively shape. Some civilian residences on steep slopes have very long pillars supporting hanging rooms, more than two stories high in somecases. Some houses are built along steep slopes one extruding layer afteranother. Such unique buildings can be found in Chongqing near the Yangtze River and Jialing River.

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