Lin Huiyin on Architecture

Author: Lin Huiyin
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-12-01
Features: In the study of Gothic architecture, the renowned 19th-century British architect and architectural theorist A.W.N. Pugin elucidated the principle of structural rationalism, believing that the clear and logical structural system of Gothic architecture reflected the organic nature of the natural world and the truth of religion, making it the ideal architectural form. His evaluation criteria for architecture were adopted by many later famous architectural theorists, critics, and historians, becoming the mainstream thought in Western architectural criticism from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century. Influenced by Western architectural academia, Lin Huiyin also applied structural rationalism to analyze Chinese architecture, thus continuing the tradition of structural rationalism in Western modern architectural criticism. Based on the effects of structural expression, she divided the development of Chinese architecture into the vigorous Sui-Tang period, the mellow Song-Liao-Jin period, and the restrained Ming-Qing period. She used the evaluation criteria of structural rationalism, which were widely accepted in the West, to examine Chinese architecture, thereby responding to the Western scholars' and modern China's yearning for modern architecture and the public's disdain for Chinese architecture. On this basis, she gave Chinese architecture its rightful place in the global architectural system and modern architectural context. She attempted to prove that Chinese architecture, like the two most important Western architectural systems—Western classical architecture and Gothic architecture—was also a highly developed architectural system. This book is suitable for: architectural historians and enthusiasts, comparative scholars or enthusiasts of Chinese and Western architecture, humanistic architectural scholars or enthusiasts, and students of all levels.