Gardens, Courtyards, and Residences: The Possibility 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 introverted 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 arm of the cross is shortened, the plan becomes a north-south-oriented rectangle, allowing for the possibility of continuous rows to adapt to urban living environments. The author concisely and vividly explains the traditional and modern origins of Chinese traditional residences—garden, courtyard, and house—through a combination of text and images. The book includes topics such as the theoretical design premises of garden-courtyard-house, tradition, holism, courtyard and garden, garden-courtyard-house, transforming houses into temples and homogeneous spaces, time and space, garden within a garden—about holism, wind house—about the formlessness of the great, and cloud house—about materials.