I’ve been looking through the book「中国民居の空間を探る」“Exploring Space in Chinese Residential Architecture” with the unwieldy subtitle「群居類住 ー 光・水・土 中国東南部の住空間」“Communal Living - Light/Water/Earth - Residential Space in Southeast China”, by 茂木計一郎 (Mogi Keiichiro) et al., published by 建築資料研究社 “Architectural Resource and Research Corporation”, 1991, 247 pages.
The book presents the results of research trips taken by a group from Tokyo University of the Arts in the 1980s, and is a fantastically detailed study of a variety of Chinese vernacular residential building types, including the famous tulou (土樓, literally ‘earthen structure’) fortified communal dwellings of Fujian province.
Bird’s eye view of a group of tulou.
Interior courtyard and cantilevered balconies of a tulou.
Facade of a tulou. The massive earthen walls taper as they rise and slope inwards for stability. Note also the fortified elements: blind lower storeys and a stone-reinforced entrance.
The book is a great resource for anyone interested in the subject, even for those who don’t read Japanese; it is informative and pleasurable enough just to look at the huge number of photographs and floor plans, street plans, diagrams, sections, cutaways, and detail drawings, all beautifully and finely drawn. It is also a valuable resource in that it is safe to assume that many, if not most, of the buildings and streetscapes documented have since been demolished, given the immense economic development experienced by the region in the decades since the book’s publication.
Something that will immediately jump out at any reader who is far more familiar with Japanese architecture is the Chinese predilection for symmetry in plan and elevation, even in relatively modest residential buildings. The Japanese, in contrast, seem to have an innate dislike of too much symmetry, and will rarely miss a chance to ‘sabotage’ it in one way or another, even in formal religious buildings.