Characteristics of houses around the world

Residential buildings, also known as dwellings, are found throughout China. Residential buildings are the most basic type of buildings, the earliest, the most widely distributed and the most numerous. Due to the different natural environments and humanistic situations in different regions of China, residential buildings in different parts of the country also show diverse faces.

The mainstream of traditional houses in the Han region of China is the regular house, which is typified by the Beijing courtyard, which is laid out in a symmetrical manner on the central axis. Beijing courtyard houses are divided into two courtyards, the main house in the center is the most respected system, which is the place for holding family rituals and receiving honored guests, and each house is facing the courtyard and connected by a veranda. Although the Beijing courtyard is a concrete manifestation of the patriarchal concepts and family system of feudal society in China in terms of residential architecture, the courtyard is square and wide, with a suitable scale, quiet and friendly, and the flowers and trees are well-organized, which makes it a very ideal outdoor living space. Most of the residential buildings in North China and Northeast China are this kind of spacious courtyard.

Tanghouses and Earthen Buildings

Southern China's dwellings are more compact, with more buildings, and their typical dwellings are the tanghouses centered on small rectangular patios. These dwellings are square as a seal in appearance and are plain and simple, and are widely distributed in the southern provinces.

The Hakka people in southern Fujian, northern Guangdong and northern Gui often live in large group houses, whose plan is both round and square, consisting of a single-story building hall in the center and four- and five-story buildings around it, and which are highly defensive, as represented by the Hakka Tulou houses in Yongding County, Fujian. Among China's traditional dwellings, the Hakka Tulou in Yongding is unique, with more than 8,000 square, round, octagonal and oval shaped Tulou***, large in scale and beautiful in shape, both scientific and practical and distinctive, constituting a marvelous world of dwellings.

Fujian Tulou is built with local soil, gravel, and wood chips into a single house, which is then connected into a large house, and then built up into a heavy and closed "defensive" castle-style architectural residence - Tulou. Earthen Buildings are strong, safe, closed and have a strong clan character. Inside the building, there are wells and granaries, so that in case of war or banditry, the door will be closed and the building will be self-contained, and in case of siege, the building will be able to provide food and water for several months. In addition to the warmth in winter and coolness in summer, earthquake-proof and wind-resistant features, Tulou has become the residence of Hakka people who have been inherited from generation to generation and prospered.

Minority residential architecture

China's ethnic minority areas of residential architecture is also very diverse, such as the northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur homes are mostly flat roofs, earth walls, one to three floors, outside the courtyard; Tibetan typical residential "Diaobang" is a stone masonry walls, the interior of the wooden structure of the flat roof; Mongolian usually live in movable yurts, which can be used as a dwelling place. Mongolia usually live in movable yurts; and the southwest of the ethnic minorities often rely on the mountains and water to build wooden structure of dry-fence type buildings, downstairs spacious, upstairs living, of which the Yunnan Dai's bamboo buildings have the most characteristics. Southwest China's residential areas to the Miao, Tujia footstools most characteristic. Hanging-footed buildings are usually built on slopes, no foundation, to support the building with pillars, the building is divided into two or three layers, the top layer is very short, only put food does not live in the people, downstairs piling up miscellaneous goods or livestock enclosure.

Northern kiln caves and ancient city dwellings

China has a wide area and many nationalities, and the forms, structures, decorative arts, and color tones of the dwellings in different parts of the country have their own characteristics. Here, we will mainly introduce the distinctive northern kilns and dwellings in ancient cities.

Northern China, the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River in the area of more kiln-style homes, in Shaanxi, Gansu, Henan, Shanxi and other loess areas, local residents in the natural earth wall cut horizontal holes, and often several holes connected, in the hole with masonry, the construction of kilns. Kilns are fireproof, noise-proof, warm in winter and cool in summer, land-saving, economical and labor-saving, and organically combining natural and living scenes, which is a perfect form of construction adapted to local conditions and permeated with people's love and attachment to the loess land.

In addition, there are also well-preserved ancient cities in China, which contain a large number of ancient dwellings. Among them, Pingyao Ancient City in Shanxi Province and Lijiang Ancient City in Yunnan Province were both inscribed on the World Heritage List in 1998.

Pingyao Ancient City is the most complete surviving ancient county town of the Ming and Qing dynasties, and is a typical representative of the ancient county towns of the Han Chinese Central Plains. To date, the city's walls, streets, dwellings, stores, temples and other buildings are still largely intact, and its architectural pattern and style features remain largely untouched. Pingyao is a living specimen for the study of China's political, economic, cultural, military, architectural and artistic historical development.

Built in the Southern Song Dynasty, Lijiang Ancient City is the only town that combines the traditional architecture of the Naxi ethnic group and foreign architectural features. Lijiang Ancient City was not influenced by the architectural rituals of the Central Plains, and the road network in the city was irregular, with no strict city walls. Black Dragon Pool is the main source of water in the ancient city, the pool water is divided into strips of thin into the wall around the household, forming a water network, the ancient city can be seen everywhere in the river and canal water murmuring, the river willows whisk water.