Characteristics and classification of Fujian earth buildings

Hakka Tulou is characterized by a circle of five-story buildings surrounding a huge square or round house. There is a central courtyard inside the house, and the ancestral temple is generally located on the central axis opposite the main entrance of the house. Or build bungalows in the courtyard to form the second circle, or even the third, fourth and fifth circles. The ancestral hall is located in the center of the inner circle of the core, offering sacrifices to ancestors and holding family gifts. The outer earth wall is very thick, often reaching more than 2 meters. The first and second floors are kitchens and barns, which are not open to the public or have only small perforations. Only people who live above the third floor can open windows and shoot, which is very defensive.

There are three typical Hakka earth buildings: Wufeng Building, Square Building and Yuan House. Its architectural features have three points:

1) The central axis is clear. Generally speaking, the main hall, the main building and the gate are all built on the central axis, and ancillary buildings such as horizontal houses are distributed on the left and right sides, and the overall symmetry on both sides is extremely strict.

2) Take the hall as the core. Highlight the position of the main hall, plan the courtyard with the hall as the center, and then combine the earth building into a whole with the courtyard as the center.

3) The corridor runs through the whole building. However, there are few isolated earth buildings like Qing Ji Building in Yongding and even Hakka areas.

① Wufenglou

Wufeng Building is the lower hall, nave and the main building (upper hall) from front to back along the central axis of the whole house, which are collectively called the three halls. The lower hall is the lobby, and nave is the family gathering hall, both of which are single floors; The main building is mostly three, four and five floors, with the ancestral hall in the middle of the ground floor for ancestral tablets and the bedrooms on the left, right and upper floors. The three halls are separated by patios, with compartments on the left and right, and passages leading to the horizontal houses. A horizontal house refers to a strip-shaped long house parallel to the central axis, which is also a room. The number of floors increases from front to back and finally approaches the height of the main building. Taking the main building as the center of gravity, the two horizontal buildings are like the wings of a big bird, and the momentum stretches like a phoenix spreading its wings, so it is called "Wufeng Building".

Wufeng Pagoda is located at the foot of the mountain, which is low in front and high in the back. The roof is mostly mountain-leaning, with gentle slope and straight eaves, which obviously retains more Han and Tang styles.

② Square building

Among Fujian earth buildings, square buildings are more popular than round villages. The square building is characterized by a circle of square tall walls rammed, leaving only one entrance and one hall. The room is set along the wall, with an open patio in the center and cloisters around the patio, which overlap each other and reach five or six floors. This kind of earth building gives full play to the traditional rammed earth technology. The same form, big and small, with different levels, is very strong. The modeling features of the square building are similar to those of Wufeng Building, but the outer walls of the lower hall and the horizontal house are thicker and higher, forming a more spectacular whole.

③ Yuanzhai

Yuanzhai is the most attractive of the three typical plastic arts. From the architectural analysis, the lighting and ventilation of the round building are relatively general; Save building materials and have small wind resistance; Because the force is uniform, the earthquake resistance is also the strongest. Square buildings appeared earlier than circular buildings. From square buildings to circular buildings, defense requirements are the most important factor. Compared with square buildings, circular buildings have seven advantages:

1) The square building's four-corner room is not popular because of its dark light, poor ventilation, close to wooden stairs and great noise interference, while the circular building eliminates the corner room.

2) Compared with square buildings, there is no obvious difference in the orientation of rooms in circular buildings, which is beneficial to the distribution within the family.

3) The area of a circle with the same circumference is 1.273 times that of a square. Therefore, building a circular building can get more inner courtyard space than a building.

4) In circular buildings, the outer arc of the fan-shaped room is longer than the earth wall, and the inner arc is shorter than the wood structure, which saves more materials than the square building.

5) The wooden components of circular buildings are uniform in size.

6) Feng Shui believes that the round building can be restrained. The scientific explanation is that circular buildings have less resistance to cold air than square buildings, so the influence of evil spirits on rooms is relatively small.

7) From the seismic point of view, the circular building can transmit the horizontal seismic force more evenly, so the seismic performance of the model house is stronger.

This circular building is generally composed of two or three circles, nested from the inside out. The outer ring is more than ten meters high, with four floors and one or two hundred rooms. The first floor is a kitchen and dining room, the second floor is a warehouse, and the third and fourth floors are bedrooms. There are thirty or fifty rooms on the second floor, which are generally guest rooms. One of them is the ancestral hall, which is a public place for hundreds of people living in the building to get married, mourn, celebrate and celebrate. There are also wells, bathrooms, mills and other facilities in the building. The earth building is rammed with local raw soil, without reinforced concrete. The width of the wall foundation is 3m, the thickness of the bottom wall is1.5m, which gradually decreases upwards, and the thickness of the top wall is not less than 0.9m.. Then it is divided into many rooms with wooden boards along the circular outer wall, and there is a corridor inside.

On the whole, Wufeng Tower, centered on the three halls, contains obvious inferiority complex. To be sure, it is the continuation and development of the ancient courtyard layout in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, the birthplace of Chinese culture. In its group combination, only the upper hall (main hall) at the end of the central axis adopts a heavy rammed earth bearing wall. The layout of the square building is similar to that of Wufeng Building, but its thick earth wall extends from the upper room to the whole periphery. Obviously, its defense has been greatly strengthened. As far as the name is concerned, Yuancun shows two characteristics. On the one hand, in the circular building, the three halls have been hidden, and the priority of respect has been seriously weakened; On the other hand, Zhai is a fortress, and its defense function rises to the first place, becoming an extremely effective paramilitary project.

Although the sparrow is small, it has all aspects. Tulou is a miniature city. It has a tall and solid "city wall", a mature and perfect lighting, ventilation and water supply system, and a wide internal space, which makes the earth building have more fuel and food reserves than other forms of houses.

Fourth, the unique performance of tulou.

Hakka tulou architecture is a strange mixture of backward productivity and high civilization. They are perfect in technology and function, have high aesthetic value in modeling and have deep connotation in cultural connotation. Earth buildings not only have the unique function of defending the enemy, but also have the characteristics of earthquake prevention, fire prevention, theft prevention, good ventilation and lighting. Because of the thick soil wall, it is warm in winter and cool in summer. Yongding Hakka earth building has the following unique attributes:

1, full economy

The main building materials of Hakka earth buildings are loess and Chinese fir soil. In the border area of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi where Hakka people live together, these two materials are inexhaustible. Loess, in particular, is taken from the hillside, so there is no problem of destroying cultivated land. If the old building needs to be demolished and rebuilt, the wall soil can be reused or used as crop fertilizer. Generally speaking, due to the smooth ventilation of the roof truss, the wooden components will not be seriously attacked by termites or rotted by moisture, and the old materials can be reused. The construction technology of earth building is easy to master, and it can be operated by manpower without special equipment. Usually, the construction time is arranged in dry and rainy winter, and at this time it is in the slack season, people can participate in a large number of projects, which greatly reduces the cost of building the army.

2, good firmness

Hakka earth buildings, especially round villages, have the best firmness. The cylindrical structure can uniformly transmit all kinds of loads, and at the same time, the bottom of the outer wall is the thickest, gradually thinning upward and slightly inward, forming an excellent prestressed centripetal state. Under the action of general earthquake or uneven settlement of foundation, the whole earth building will not be destructively deformed. However, due to the horizontal tie rods such as bamboo strips and wooden strips buried in the soil wall, even if cracks occur due to excessive temporary stress, the overall structure is not dangerous.

One of the biggest dangers of earth buildings is water hammer, but most of them are built with pebbles, and the height is designed above the highest flood line. An earth wall is rammed above the stone foundation, and a roof with a height of about 3 meters is set at the top of the wall to ensure that rainwater is thrown out of the wall.

3. wonderful body

The wall thickness of Hakka earth building is about 1.5 meters, so hot weather can prevent the summer heat from entering, and cold weather can isolate the wind, forming a microclimate in the building, which is cool in summer and warm in winter. Surprisingly, the thick earth wall has a hidden function that other walls can't match. In the border areas of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi provinces, the annual rainfall is as high as 1800 mm, and there are often sudden sunny showers, and the outdoor dry humidity changes too much. In this climate, the thick soil keeps the humidity suitable for human body, and when the environment is too dry, it can naturally release water; When the environment is too humid, it will absorb water, which is obviously very beneficial to the health of residents.

4. Outstanding defensive nature

The thick wall of Hakka earth building is one of the most important features, which is the extreme expression of the introversion of traditional houses in China. Take the common four-story earth building as an example. There are no external windows on the first and second floors. There is a narrow slit on the third floor, four big windows, and sometimes a platform is added on the fourth floor. The weak point of the earth wall is the entrance, and the reinforcement measures are to wrap iron sheets on the heavy hardwood door, fix it with a crossbar behind the door, and install a fire-proof water tank on the door. These are all for defense needs. The border region of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi was once a wilderness. Until the early 1920s, there were still many virgin forests, insects, snakes and many wild animals. For a long time in history, "the sky is high and the emperor is far away", which is beyond the reach of the DPRK. Even Fuzhou, Guangzhou and Nanchang, the capitals of these three provinces, can't help but make friends because of the extreme and dangerous roads. In addition to being frequently attacked by aborigines with strong folk customs, Hakkas also migrated to different families with different surnames, and there were constant life-and-death struggles. The harsh living environment forces Hakkas to attach great importance to defense, and they build their houses into fortified cities that are easy to attack and live in groups. In the era of primary firearms such as wells, granaries and barns in Tulou, Tulou provided enough security for Hakkas. Among the Hakkas, there are many stories about "the building is safe and sound" after the enemy has been unable to attack for a long time.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) inherits meaning.

Tulou architecture contains the concept of harmony between man and nature, and integrates the needs of safety and defense, production and life, and the awareness of respecting education. The earth building is beautifully built, and the planning and construction are exquisite. It makes full use of natural space, rationally arranges the layout of houses, or depends on mountains or water, so that the residential building can be in harmony with the natural environment. Tulou has diverse structures, rich and orderly internal space and exquisite decoration technology. The construction technology of earth building is a vivid embodiment of Hakka architectural culture. It inherited the ancient earth building technology in the Central Plains, retained a large number of excellent architectural traditions, and became a living fossil for studying ancient architectural technology.

The fortress-like closed appearance and super-large scale show strong defense and show a magnificent majesty. The interior space of the earth building is composed of slender wooden members, and the living space is open to the inner courtyard. The standard small studio and the scale of being close to the people make people feel very cordial. This is a space based on human scale, an ideal environment for people to live in, and also reflects the harmony between man and nature.

After more than 600 years of wind and rain, the oldest earth building still stands in the foothills of southwest Fujian and still plays a role. Even in today's highly developed productive forces, we can't ignore the scientific design and cultural value of these shocking ancient buildings.

Under the impact of modernization and commodity economy, the residents' living concept in Yongding area has changed, and earth buildings are no longer built. The original Yongding Hakka earth building has been in disrepair for a long time, and the inheritance of architectural skills is also facing a crisis, which urgently needs the attention and support of the government and takes practical measures to protect it.