"Over some three centuries were almost all public buildings in China after a hardly changing building system built:
rests on wooden supports a powerful, curved roof with wide overhanging eaves and tile roof, from the an elaborate wooden structure is supported. Columns, purlins, and stacked with rows of short beams form a structure whose parts are all connected to each other only by means of plugs so that a resilient wood framework is created, which dampens vibrations of strong earthquakes.
The walls are set only and have no supporting function.
Compared to our own traditional Chinese tile roofs tiled roofs, depending on size, a three to four times more weight and can withstand major storms. To assemble the wood of the white cedar is used that the tension von Stahl hat und dessen Druckfestigkeit mehr als sechsmal so hoch ist wie von Beton.
Diese Konstruktion trug dazu bei, dass viele historische Bauten Naturkatastrophen überstanden und deshalb heute noch Holzbauten aus dem 8. Jahrhundert n. Chr. existieren. Die meisten dieser Gebäude befinden sich westlich von Peking in der Provinz Shanxi.
Halle der Tausend Buddhas, Zhihua-Tempel, Peking (Ming-Dynastie, 1368-1644
© Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage, Beijing
Die spezifische chinesische Weise der Holzkonstruktion wurde im 11. Century on the orders of the emperor in a manual (Yingzao Fashi) specified in detail. Thanks to this legislation, and by the great adaptability of the system, the typical timber construction has been passed from generation to generation until today.
Such longevity of a building structure is in the architecture world einzigartig.Im 20th Century were made in China by major Buddhist temples and palaces
documentation and teaching models of the highest precision. On the large-scale models, all details are accurately reproduced to enable the study and any necessary reconstruction of historic buildings.
main hall of the temple Nanchan Si, Wutai, Shanxi Province (Tang Dynasty, 782)
© Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage, Beijing
In the exhibition of the Architecture Museum presented 19 of these models , among them are next detailed models of the console system (Dougong) the replicas of the oldest existing Chinese wooden structures such as the Nanchan Temple (Tang Dynasty, 782 AD, Wutai, Shanxi), the Foguang Temple (Tang Dynasty, 857 AD, Wutai, Shanxi), and the Guanyin Hall of Dule Monastery (Liao dynasty, 984 AD, Tianjin, Jixian). The latter has weathered 28 earthquakes, remained below that of 1679, are on the outside of the hall was no other building in the area.
Furthermore, the models are the 300 m long, has four warehouses existing system of Yongle Palace in Ruicheng (Yuan Dynasty, 1271-1368, Shanxi Province) and the 270-acre complex, the Temple of Heaven (Ming and Qing dynasty presented since 1420, Beijing) and a model of one of the 492 Buddhist cave temples in the region of Dunhuang. All these plants are on the list of UNESCO Weltkulturerbes.Die collection is owned by the Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage in Beijing and is the Architecture Museum of Munich University of Technology shows for the first time outside China. Along with photographs, Building surveys and the information they contain provide a fascinating insight into the models of beauty and technique of wooden construction and in the tradition of Chinese architecture.
The exhibition is a publication by Jovis Verlag.
Tower of Charity clouds (Ciyun Ge), Dingxing, Hebei Province (Yuan Dynasty, 1306) © Chinese Academy of Cultural Heritage, Beijing
