What are the similarities and differences between Chinese and Western architecture?

Comparison of the structural differences between Chinese and Western architecture:

1. Differences in building materials

There are three kinds of traditional building materials in China and the West: earth, wood and stone, the traditional Chinese building materials are mainly wood, while the Western building materials are more stone-based, the Chinese use stone and earth for the construction of plinths and walls, while the Westerners use wood for roofs, which makes Chinese and Western architecture have their own different characteristics and express different emotions. This makes Chinese and Western architecture have their own different characteristics, but also expresses different emotions, Chinese architecture is more to show a person's own emotions, Western architecture is a kind of God's divine emotions, favoring and religious aspects.

Western stone buildings are generally developed vertically, pointing straight upwards. In this way, the ability to lift the high-density stone roofs into the sky becomes the key to the art of architecture, and the columns that carry out this task also become the key to the key. Therefore, the "basic vocabulary" of Western architecture is columns, i.e., those vertically upward, sky-high stones. If columns are the "basic vocabulary" of Western architectural art, then roofs are its "main syntax". Different roofs lead to different styles, such as Greek, Roman, Byzantine, Gothic, Baroque and so on.

The wooden buildings of ancient China used the arch as the "basic vocabulary". The so-called "arch" is the interlocking curved timbers that hold up the eaves of a house, allowing the vertical forces to expand horizontally to create a wide variety of gables. Like the roofs of Western buildings, the eaves, as the "main form" of ancient Chinese architecture, are of many types, low-hanging, flat, or upturned. The different forms of eaves create different artistic effects: lightness, simplicity, or majesty. Not only pavilions, platforms, buildings, pavilions should use the eaves to mark their identity, to express their feelings, and the height of the eaves, the length of the eaves will often become a difficult point of architectural design and key points. As the saying goes, "increase one point is too long, reduce one point is too short", the design of the eaves must be just right in order to appear light and not frivolous, simple and not mechanical, majestic and not dull.

2, architectural differences

The traditional Chinese architectural structure has the following three characteristics: the first is to pay attention to the symmetry of the artistic effect; the second is to wood as the main frame; the third is a unique individual modeling. Western architecture does not focus on the pursuit of structural beauty of the building, but more the pursuit of architectural sculpture, the most common in Western architecture is the stone columns and corridors, which is an abstract expression of the beauty of the human body.

3, the difference in architectural values

Chinese architecture has a strong painting effect, focusing on the creation of the beauty of the mood, not too much attention to the shape of the building and the effect of perspective, but often pay more attention to the architectural group in space, the kind of perspective effect, which can give a person a kind of extension, the feeling of the path to the secluded, contains the traditional Chinese people's beauty of the implicit as well as the pursuit of harmony of the mentality. Western architecture compared to traditional Chinese architecture, it is more inclined to sculptural modeling, the importance of the building as a whole and local harmony and unity.

4. Differences in the development of architecture

From the viewpoint of the development process of architecture, Chinese architecture is conservative. The forms and materials used in Chinese architecture remained unchanged for 3,000 years. Unlike China, Western architecture has often sought change, and its structures and materials have evolved more dramatically. From the first temples on the Acropolis in Greece to today has been more than 2,500 years, during the period of the whole of Europe's ancient architectural forms continue to evolve, leap change. From the ancient Greek classical columns to the ancient Roman arches, vaulted roof technology, from the Gothic architecture of the pointed coupons, cross arches and flying buttresses technology to the European Renaissance era of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome, no matter from the image, proportions, decorations and spatial layout, have undergone great changes. This reflects the Westerners, dare to take a unique approach, the spirit of innovation.

5. Difference in spatial layout of the building

From the spatial layout of the building, the Chinese building is a closed group of spatial pattern, spread on the ground plane. No matter what kind of buildings in China, from houses to palaces, almost all of them are a pattern, similar to the "courtyard" pattern. The beauty of Chinese architecture is also a "collective" beauty. For example, the Ming and Qing palaces in Beijing, the Thirteen Tombs in Ming Dynasty, and the Confucius Temple in Qufu are huge complexes made up of courtyards, with all kinds of buildings arranged in a regular way, reflecting the inward-looking character of ancient Chinese social structure, patriarchal thinking and ritualistic system. In contrast to China, Western architecture is characterized by an open, monolithic spatial pattern that develops towards the sky. The use of "volume" upward expansion and vertical stacking, from the huge and varied forms, to form a towering, majestic and spectacular whole. Moreover, since the city states of ancient Greece and Rome, there has been extensive use of colonnades, doors and windows to increase the exchange of information and transparency, and to surround the building with external space to emphasize the physical image of the building. This has to do with the fact that Westerners frequently interacted with each other by sea at a very early stage, and that slave democracies were practiced within their societies. The outward-looking character of ancient Greece and the spirit of science and democracy influenced not only ancient Rome, but also the whole Western world.