peter nesteruk (home page: contents and index)
Chinese Cities III (the Solar in South-East
Asian Architecture)
The long edge and the temple. If the Greeks (after the Egyptians) took
the pedimented or short side as the front facing
side, then the Chinese (and the cultures they influenced) took the long aspect
of the building as the front. This elevation combines the advantages of the
flat top of desert architecture with the pointed top of wetter climates. The
long decorated top-edge with the curved-out roof skirt becomes an imposing
solar, comparable to the triangular point of the Greek form. In this way the
triangular roof is used as shelter from the rain and from the sun (a succession
of these used adjacently will to cover a wider area - another advantage in the
long aspect of the building being taken as 'front'). The resulting long edge
presented to the viewer placed before the Chinese temple offers the kind of
broad sweep of ceremonial form normally available only to a flat top building
with its broad entryways and open halls (early Middle eastern
architecture, esp the Persian hall). The Greek form,
by contrast, like the Egyptian temple form
-but not like the long face of the Egyptian Pylon- is better suited to
the psychologically acute, long 'tunnel' type of internal structure; sequences
of rooms building expectation as we move towards a inner sanctum... The long form offers immediate size and
height, with other rooms to follow (arranged climactically) under the adjacent
roofs. This type of ceremonial, or ritual, space offers a tableau (complete
with giant figures, scenes and shelves for offerings) by contrast to the Egyptian
and Greek form which narrows into an, often occult, chamber with altar (the
Mysteries). Christian churches take the same form but allow the worshipers in,
moving the outer altar of pagan classical religions inside with the believers,
the Orthodox form pushing the barrier behind the altar, the Iconostasis.
If the flat and triangular top are taken to
represent the world’s two main or dominant geo-structural architectural poles,
two alternative (ideal-type) architectural forms, then the Chinese form would
appear to have the best of both worlds. In terms of symbolic self-presentation,
breadth and climactic features are combined with a long edge (as seen from from close up). This feature is also experienced as the top
edge of the roof (as seen from further away) and may be capped, at its edges,
with upturned eaves and roof ends (Song), or by decorations (Qing, Ming) the
number and intensity of which, as on the Greek temple, signal its religious or
other importance as a site of power. This fusion also means that there is an
easy option or adaptation of the flat top form alone available for a variety of
local uses, chiefly in institutional or official architecture, as can be seen
in the key public buildings in
The repetition
of the top edge, a feature found in many temples, in effect a doubling up of
the eaves offers the effect of a double roof (a design innovation from around
the Warring States period). In aspect this climactic effect of the parallel
edge (eaves) of the lower ‘roof’, builds up to that of the top roof (proper)
and its ornamented edge, so producing a doubling, an under-lining (sic) of the
temple top’s solar effect, of its relation to the sky and horizon. A relation
which performs in material, architectural terms, the function of religion with
respect to its role of mediation between heaven and earth. (In effect the area
between the two sets of eaves becomes a top floor (the upper or top section of
the building) which echoes the top itself - for example in its grill patterns).
However in
domestic architecture the exigencies of squeezing many properties onto a road,
where the narrowness of the resulting building as it backs away from the road
(its front) means that (especially in the modern period reliant upon concrete
and iron) a roof is often more conveniently found to be sloping away from the
road and down the long sides (as opposed to a succession of smaller roofs parallel
to the road - the previous solution with gaps between the roofs allowing the
presence of sun-lit but shady courtyards). The narrow front end thus
immediately offers a gable or pediment to top off the public face or view
presented to the road (this form can be seen most clearly in Vietnamese
domestic architecture were it is overwhelmingly popular). A feature which is
nevertheless unnecessary in a concrete building where, often regardless of
climate, flat tops are adopted as cheaper, and tiled roofs dispensed with as a
luxury (particularly if no extra rooms become available as a result). And
indeed in many modern structures the pediment on offer is, exactly as in much
Baroque architecture, only a facade, a topping-off of the upper floor (often,
again as in the Baroque, just a front with nothing substantial behind) but
providing a sense of finish to the building, it's top, which it in fact
provides. So marking its transformation into a solar.
Copyright
2005 Peter Nesteruk