What does rural podium mean?

The rural podium is a three-story or more house located around a central courtyard in a courtyard-style residential building, usually the living area for women and their children. Podium buildings possess a high level of architectural technology and cultural connotation, built in traditional rural villages, are a unique form of traditional Chinese rural architecture.

The rural podium has a unique architectural style and cultural connotation, which not only has a strong clan color, but is also closely related to women's culture and private space. The gate of the skirt building often has beautifully carved patterns, and the internal structure of the house is reasonable, with a sense of spatial hierarchy. The interior of the podium is mostly a women's activity area, including living, entertainment, sewing and other activities, reflecting the cultural connotation of women's dominant position in the family in traditional Chinese clan society.

With the acceleration of modernization and economic development in rural China, rural podiums, as an important part of traditional Chinese culture and architecture, have gradually disappeared. Many traditional dwellings have been demolished or transformed into modernized buildings, and rural podiums have been gradually lost under this trend. At the same time, the loss and inheritance of podium building techniques has become a very real problem. Therefore, in order to protect and inherit Chinese traditional culture, it is necessary to strengthen the protection and research of rural podiums, so that they can be inherited and innovated in modernization.