Kaiping Watchtower building structure has what characteristics?

Kaiping Watchtower modeling structure

The lower part of the towers are roughly the same form, only the size, height difference. Large towers, each layer is equivalent to three rooms, or larger; small towers, each layer is equivalent to only half an open room. The highest towers are Chikan Township, the South Tower up to seven layers, while the short towers only three layers, not much higher than the average building.

Tower modeling changes mainly in the top of the towers. From Kaiping existing more than 1,400 buildings, the roof of the building can be summarized in the shape of one hundred, but the more beautiful Chinese-style roof, mixed Chinese and Western roofs, Roman-style mountain flower roofs, domes, the United States Castle-style roofs, Europe and the United States villa-style roofs, courtyard balcony roofs and other forms. Kaiping Watchtower is located in Kaiping City, Guangdong Province, is a special type of Chinese vernacular architecture, is a set of defense, residential and Chinese and Western architectural art in one of the multi-storey tower-style buildings.

According to existing evidence, Kaiping Watchtower at the latest in the late Ming Dynasty (16th century) has arisen to the late 19th and early 20th centuries to develop into a performance of the history of the Chinese diaspora, social patterns and cultural traditions of a unique group of architectural images. This kind of architectural complex is grand in scale, numerous in type and chic in shape, and is distributed in the countryside of Kaiping City.

It is characterized by a combination of Chinese and Western houses, ancient Greece, ancient Rome and Islamic style.

Since the Ming Dynasty (?1368?-?1644? years), Kaiping is located in Xinhui, Taishan, Enping, Xinxing four counties between the "four no matter what" place, rampant banditry, social disorder; coupled with the river, every typhoon storms, floods are frequent, local people were forced to build towers in the village. People were forced to build towers in the village for self-protection.

From the first year of the Republic of China (1912) to the Republic of China 15 years (1926) this 14 years, bandits robbed the school up to 8 times, captive teachers, students more than a hundred people. Among them, the Republic of 11 years (1922) in December the bandits robbed the Chikan area Kaiping Middle School, was the Eagle Village towers searchlights, the four townships in time to intercept, intercepted back to the principal and students 17 people. This incident has stirred the county, overseas Chinese heard the news is also very pleasantly surprised that towers in the prevention of banditry played a role, therefore, outside the scrimping and saving, capital remittance home to build towers.

Later, some overseas Chinese for the safety of their families, property loss, in the hometown to build a new house, have built a variety of towers type buildings.

According to the different functions can be divided into the House floor, residence floor and more floor to the residence floor for the most. Existing types of towers are as follows:?

House: 473? House floor: 1149? More buildings: 221?

according to different building materials can be divided into stone, mud, brick and concrete buildings, concrete buildings for the most. Existing types of towers are as follows:?

Stone buildings: 10? mud building: 100? Brick building: 249? Concrete floor: 1474?

Kaiping Watchtower a variety of types, if from the building materials to points, can be divided into four kinds: stone floor, rammed earth floor, brick floor, concrete floor.

Stone buildings

Kaiping stone towers are mainly distributed in the low hills, also known as the local "stone building". Some of the wall by the processing rules of stone masonry, some of the natural stone free base placed between the stones filled with soil bonding. At present, Kaiping existing stone building 10, accounting for 0.5% of the total number of towers.

Rammed earth building

Rammed earth building distributed in the hilly area to the town of Chishui, Longsheng town as much. Local towers will be called "mud floor" or "yellow mud floor". Although after decades of wind and rain erosion, is still very strong. Existing 100, accounting for 5.5 ﹪ of the total number of towers.

Brick building

Brick building is mainly distributed in the hilly and plain areas, the brick used in three kinds of: one is the Ming Dynasty soil method of firing the red brick, the second is the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China period of the local burnt bricks, and the third is the modern red brick. Early red brick masonry towers fired with the clay method, Kaiping has rarely seen, to welcome the early part of the Dragon House built, is extremely valuable remnants. Brick towers, including the mud outside the brick, cement outside the brick and brick masonry 3 kinds. A small number of towers built with modern red brick, red brick outside a layer of cement. At present, Kaiping existing brick towers nearly 249, accounting for 13.6 ﹪ of the total number of towers.

Concrete building

Concrete building is mainly distributed in the plains and hilly areas, also known as the "concrete floor" or "stone rice floor", mostly built in the twentieth century in the twentieth and thirtieth centuries, it is the overseas Chinese absorbing the architectural features of different countries around the world to design and build The modeling best reflects the architectural features of the East meets West. The entire towers using cement (generally imported from the United Kingdom, then known as "red mud"), sand, stone and steel, extremely durable. Due to the construction materials imported from abroad at that time, the cost is high, in order to save materials, some towers made of wood on the inside of the floor. At present, Kaiping existing concrete building 1474, the largest number of towers in Kaiping, accounting for 80.4 ﹪.

By function, Kaiping Watchtower can be divided into three types of House, House, more floor:

● House

Built in the village behind the village, by the whole village or a number of households to collect money **** with the construction, each household to share a room for the temporary refuge from bandits or flooding. Its shape is closed, simple, less decorative external defense. In the three types of towers, the House House appeared the earliest, the existing 473, accounting for about 26% of the Kaiping towers.

● residence building?

Also built in the village behind the rich family sole proprietorship, it is a good combination of towers and residential defense two major functions, the building is tall, the space is more spacious, living facilities are more complete, easy to get up and live. Residence building shape is more diverse, beautiful and generous, strong external decorative, in order to meet the defense function on the basis of the pursuit of architectural beauty, often become the symbol of the village. The largest number of residence building, the existing 1149, accounting for about 62% of the towers in Kaiping.

● more floor

Mainly built in the village entrance or outside the village hillock, riverbanks, towering, wide-open view, more equipped with searchlights and alarms to facilitate the early detection of banditry, early warning to the villages, is the product of the need for the neighboring villages of the joint defense. More floor appeared the latest time, the existing 221, accounting for about 12% of the Kaiping Watchtower. [

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