Brief Comparison of the Differences between Chinese and Western Traditional Ar-chitecture
摘 要:建筑是人類物質和精神文明的產物,建筑是構成文化的一個重要部分,建筑與文化緊密相連,是一種文化類型的體現。對建筑文化的了解能很好地促進中西方文化的交流,更好的幫助人們了解中西文明的發展。
關鍵詞:中國傳統建筑;西方傳統建筑;建筑差異;文化差異
[中圖分類號]:G04 [文獻標識碼]:A
[文章編號]:1002-2139(2012)-21--01
Architecture is influenced by natural objects, materials, social conditions, technology, ideology, religion, culture, and aesthetics and so on. For example, Eskimo use ice and snow to build house thoroughly, while people in southwest China often use bamboo to build houses on stilts, which is affected by natural and geographical conditions. During a long period of time, Chinese and Western architecture was in a relatively closed system, developed independently, with little opportunity to communicate. So a variety of differences in architecture are formed.
Among all the differences in architecture building, materials will be the basic one. Chinese like to use wood while the Westerners like to use stone.
Chinese traditional architecture had used wooden structure since long ago, and most of the traditional buildings which now are preserved are wooden structures. Even if a number of brick pagodas and underground tombs use a masonry structure, they still mimic the appearance of wood structure. It shows the importance of woods in traditional buildings in China. Wooden structure with wooden pillars and beams forms the skeleton of the house, and the weight of the roof beams passed through the column, and then through the column to the ground. In a word, the wooden structure is widespread in a large number of Chinese traditional buildings.
The color is a part of a building, and people’s preference to colors is a culture. Some bright colors, such as red, green and yellow are popular in house decoration in China, and some plain colors such as white, black and grey are also popular. The Westerners also prefer to use bright colors to decorate their buildings.
In Chinese traditional architecture, bright red and some plain colors are widely used in the buildings. Doors, windows and beams are colored vermilion. Walls are usually colored white which are called “washed wall”. In Western traditional architecture, showy colors can be found everywhere. As the architecture classic, \"Ten Books on Architecture\" introduces, at that time the building colors are very rich, ocher, gray and yellow, blush, pink, reddish brown, red, gray, blue, white, black and gold and so on. (Yuan Cao, 2004: 37) Speculating from the marble of the existing legacy, on the stigma of the temple eaves are not only exquisite carvings, but also bright colors. They use the red for the background more, use black for the pattern or oppositely use. They form a vivid comparison. (Zhang, Fang Zhang, 2007: 90)
Chinese architecture is influenced by Western culture. Many western-style buildings appear in China, such as Yuanmingyuan and a lot of Western-style gardens. In modern times, the communications between China and West become more convenient and frequent. The Chinese and Western modern architecture have fused gradually. Nowadays, in preserving and promoting our traditional essence in architectural culture, at the same time, we are expecting the integration points in building development with the West and thus further our communication and exchanges in various aspects.
注釋:
【1】 張得亞,方擁班,張一兵. 東西民俗文化差異對建筑的影響. 觀點,2007.
【2】 袁成,曹詩圖. 中西建筑文化比較及其形成背景分析. 三峽大學學報,2004.
【3】 劉婉華. 辯證思維方式與中國古典建筑審美特征. 現代哲學,2006(3).
【4】劉宇峰. 中西建筑文化時空觀比較. 山西建筑,2007(36).