Gardens, Courtyards, and Residences: Exploring the Intersection of Traditional Culture and Modern Architecture

Author: Li Jinsong
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: Here, the [Circle] is used as a symbol of Chinese space, expressing the integration of garden and courtyard, Confucianism and Taoism, and the unity of heaven and man. However, all of them are enclosed within walls, forming inward-oriented spaces. The plan of the garden-courtyard house is in the shape of a short-arm cross, with the north-south axis as the primary one and the east-west axis as the secondary one. This implies change—when the short arms of the cross are shortened, the plan becomes a north-south-oriented rectangle, allowing for the possibility of rows, adapting to urban living environments. The author succinctly and vividly explains the traditional and modern origins of Chinese traditional residential architecture—garden, courtyard, and house—through a combination of text and illustrations. The book includes topics such as the theoretical and design premises of garden-courtyard houses, traditional and holistic perspectives, courtyards and gardens, garden-courtyard houses, converting houses into temples and homogeneous spaces, time and space, gardens within gardens—about holism, wind houses—about the formlessness of the great, and cloud houses—about materials.