Ancient Chinese residential buildings

2 min read

A traditional residential building assigns family members based on the family’s hierarchy.

Homes all over China in pre-modern times had a lot in common. The way of laying out a house was similar among the rich and poor, both in earlier and later times. Certain materials and techniques, such as pounded earth foundations, timber framing, and use of bricks and tiles were present throughout the country. Nevertheless, houses were by no means identical in all parts of China. If we look at houses in different regions we can see much that differed from place to place.

The basic building block of Chinese architecture is the bay or”the space between,”which is the space defined by roof supports. Chinese houses almost always consist of an oddnumber of bays; an even number of bays is considered unlucky. Therefore, three-orfive-bay houses are common.

Although few examples of Chinese homes have survived from antiquity, using archeological evidence, scholars have determined that many of the basic principles of Chinese house design, such as the emphasis on orientation, layout, and symmetry go far back in Chinese history.

Orientation

One of the most striking aspects of Chinese domestic architecture is the practice of making houses face south.Houses built today are also built facing south，if space allows.

Materials

The foundation of a house generally is made of pounded earth，and in some situations where wood is rare，earth is used in the construction of walls.Earth can be pounded into shape or made into bricks for walls.

For roofs，depending on the wealth of a family，the material could vary.Clay is a fairly common material for making tiles for roofing.

In some areas，for poorer people，thatch and bamboo were also common material.

Where wood was available and affordable，it was used to frame houses，providing support for the roof.The wood framework systems for Chinese homes and other buildings were standardized by the Ming Dynasty and differ from wooden frameworks used in other parts of the world.Ordinary people could do much of the construction，but often experts were needed for framing.