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Disappearing vernacular architecture – Beijing Hutongs
I was back in Beijing for about six weeks this summer, and things were getting worse. Whole neighborhoods of hutongs (traditional Beijing alleyways) are still being demolished, ancient residences gone, while new building projects are under way. Below are some pictures I took outside of the Qianmen area (almost right in the heart of old ...
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Saving Suzhou’s Vernacular Architecture – Part 3
In his preservation work on the city of Suzhou, Professor Ruan sets out by providing a historic contextualization of the city, by examining its current economic, political, and social status, and the character of the city as determined by its historic and cultural significance in relation to its architectural heritage. In this case, the canal ...
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Saving Suzhou’s Vernacular Architecture – Part 2
The city of Suzhou has a history stretching back more than 2,500 years, serving as the capital city of the Wu Kingdom as early as the Spring and Autumn Period (722- 481 B.C.E.) in 514 B.C.E.It is situated on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and on the shores ofLakeTaiin theprovinceofJiangsu,China. The city has ...
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Saving Suzhou’s Vernacular Architecture – Part 1
This series of posts are taken from a paper I wrote earlier this year about the practical aspect of historic preservation of Chinese vernacular architecture. It takes the city of Suzhou as a case study, and focuses specifically on Professor Ruan Yisan’s work on the city. Ruan Yisan (b. 1934) is former Professor of Urban ...
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A Chinese vernacular architecture trip log – Diary entries from Summer 2004
These are some diary entries that I made when traveling in southwesternChina’sSichuanProvinceand Chongqingin the summer of 2004. On this three-week trip, I mainly traveled by bus over dirt roads or by boat on the Yangzi River to a dozen remote ancient villages, the oldest of which was 1400 years old. The simplicity, practicality and elegance ...
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The beginning of the Chinese Vernacular Architecture Blog
Although this blog is still a work in progress, I wanted to make it public so that I can leverage the community of architectural historians on the web to help me build the best site possible. This site will focus on the developing field of Chinese vernacular architectural history and will hopefully function as both ...