Architectural characteristics of residential buildings in Jiangnan water town
The Yangtze River Delta and Taihu Lake water networks, where the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River are located, have mild climate, distinct seasons and abundant rainfall, forming a transportation system dominated by water transportation. The production and life of residents depend on water. This kind of natural environment and functional requirements have shaped the style and characteristics of the charming water towns in the south of the Yangtze River.
In Jiangnan water town, most of the houses are wooden one-story and two-story halls. In order to adapt to the climate characteristics of the south of the Yangtze River, the layout of residential buildings is mostly halls, patios and courtyards. The structure is tile roof, bucket wall, Guanyin bucket ridge or horse head wall, forming a building group style with scattered heights and deep white walls. Water lanes, bridges, revetments, treads, wharves, slate roads, water wall doors, street and lane buildings have appeared in the multi-river environment of water towns, forming a whole set of living environment of water towns.
As the water town in the south of the Yangtze River has always been one of the most developed areas in China, with abundant talents, there are many poems and books handed down from ancient times by the residents of the water town. Due to the rich products and prosperous industry and commerce, these towns have always been places where officials retire, rich villas and bachelors are scattered. Of course, educated people build houses carefully; And some wealthy gentry and businessmen are arty. They rented a place full of learning to plan, so they left many beautiful courtyards in many water towns. Secondly, most of these water-town dwellings were built in feudal society, and feudal ethics, Confucian tradition and geomantic custom all directly affected the management layout and house layout of these dwellings. Such as the primary and secondary halls, the sequence, the division of subject and object, the division of master and servant, the difference between men and women, etc. , all have unique design techniques, which are the ideological reflection of humanistic factors in Jiangnan water towns.
According to the scale of folk houses, they can be divided into three categories: big houses, medium houses and small houses:
Most luxury houses are those of wealthy businessmen and bureaucrats, and they are weighed vertically and horizontally. Luxury homes are mostly nine-in, at least four-in, at most seven-in, and at least one-in. For example, the Shenting in Zhouzhuang is the seven entrances. Some luxury houses are skillfully combined with gardens, which not only creates the product of residential buildings-private gardens, but also increases the attractiveness of the house itself. For example, the retreat garden in Tongli Town is a very exquisite garden.
In the plane layout of a mansion, there is usually a strict axis, the main entrance faces south or east, and the houses are square and orderly.
There are generally five entrances to the main entrance of a mansion, which are composed of hall (some shops or buildings along the street), sedan chair hall (for parking sedan chairs), main hall (for receiving main guests and holding wedding and funeral ceremonies), inner hall (for meeting relatives and friends and family affairs) and women's hall (also known as buildings, often used as residential rooms). There are wings or courtyard walls around the main building to form a courtyard. Generally, it does not open the door independently, and generally consists of a greenhouse (meeting regular customers, holding banquets, etc.). ), a study room (reading), a garden, a back room (living) and a kitchen (open the door along the back alley without interference, but there is no bathroom or toilet for families). The entrance of the house faces the street or the river, which is convenient for people to get in and out and transport goods. There is often a back alley between the two floors, which not only separates the traffic route of the master and servant, but also greatly enhances the privacy of the back room, which is conducive to sound insulation, fire prevention and theft prevention.
The Chinese mansion is similar to the mansion in form, but the difference is that the number of items in the Chinese mansion is less, generally less than four, which is generally endless. The combination of interior space is not as elegant as that in the mansion, but it is more flexible. Most middle-income families belong to this kind of house.
Small houses, that is, people's houses, are small in scale, with only one or two entrances, some along the street and some along the river, and the plane layout is relatively random, which is a unique alley and water lane landscape in water towns.
Ordinary small houses occupy a small area and have no strict axis. Generally speaking, they have two entrances with a width of one to three rooms. They are free in form, adapted to local conditions, reasonable in space utilization but poor in privacy. Ordinary small houses along the river are often commercial in nature. They are all rivers and have treads leading to the water surface. When water town houses are assembled in their halls, some distinctive components are created, which not only enrich the content of water town houses, but also have strong characteristics. Courtyard is a characteristic component for lighting and ventilation in residential buildings. The general quadrangles have a depth equivalent to their height and a variety of widths. For example, the width of the main room is three, subject to the width of the studio. Or the fifth bay is larger, the width of the Ming bay and the second bay shall prevail. In a mansion, the patio is mostly rectangular, the depth of the two wedges is reduced, or the gallery is used instead of the wing. The patio is a horizontal rectangle, long from east to west and well ventilated, which can reduce the exposure of the sun in summer. Permanent front and rear patios are used for ventilation, and the acquired depth is generally small, and deciduous trees are planted for shading.
Brick-carved gatehouses on the front and back waist doors are purely decorative features. The gatehouse in Ming Dynasty was relatively simple, while the carving in Qing Dynasty was more complicated. These gatehouses are engraved with plaques.
The walled residential buildings in water towns are mainly wood structures, so the walls have important fire protection functions. Generally speaking, gables are higher than roofs, and made into stepped or flat-headed high walls, which are called "parapets" or "parapets". Wall can be divided into solid brick and hollow bucket, or solid brick and hollow bottom mixed type. Wall foundations are often painted with stones and lime. When it is used as a decorative wall, it is faced with clear water grinding bricks, which is simple and shows the wealth of the owner.
The open spaces (such as patios) in quadrangles are paved with slate strips, stones, cracked stones or pebbles, and also paved with bricks. Indoor floors are all made of bricks. It's rainy in the south of the Yangtze River, and the groundwater level is shallow, so it's easy to get wet indoors. Generally, it should be tamped with lime first, covered with sand to prevent moisture, and the room should be covered with wooden floors.
Xuan is indoor smallpox, in fact, an air insulation layer is added to the roof. Some pavilions in the big house and the middle house are beautifully decorated and well carved, and there are also various practices such as canopy pavilions, crane-top pavilions and flower basket pavilions.
The roof and gable roof are paved with blue tiles, and the whole sloping roof is a slightly curved roof, which is beneficial to roof drainage. There are many ways to do the roof. Ordinary small-sized houses are built vertically with only tiles, and both ends are simply decorated. The roof of the main hall of large and medium-sized houses is decorated with dragons and chickens. Ordinary gables are hard-gable, and the gables of important buildings such as halls adopt shadow walls with roofs. With the depth of the house, the shadow walls of one mountain, three mountains and five mountains are also different.
The overall characteristics of the water towns in the south of the Yangtze River are: scattered bungalows and various gables, forming the kind of undulating landscape on the revetment of alleys and water lanes. The architectural modeling is light and concise, realistic and elegant, with elegant colors, adapting to local conditions, close to the river and soft and beautiful spatial outline. Therefore, it is often called "Fendaiwa" and "Flowing Bridge".