What are the architectural structures of ancient houses?

Structural mode dominated by wood frame

The ancient buildings in China used wooden structures as the load-bearing structures. The wooden beam-column system was initially complete and widely used in the Spring and Autumn Period of BC, and it became more mature in the Han Dynasty. Wood structures can generally be divided into beam-lifting type, bucket-crossing type and well dry type, with beam-lifting type being the most common. Beam lifting structure is a set of roof truss, which is built on the column foundation along the depth direction of the house, and the beam is placed on the column. Several layers of melon columns and beams are overlapped on the beams, and then the melon columns are erected on the top beams. Two groups of parallel frames are connected to the upper ends of columns with transverse purlins, which are placed on the beam heads and ridge melon columns of each floor to connect the frames with the load-bearing roof. The rafters between purlins form the skeleton of the roof. In this way, two groups of frames can form a room, and a house can be a room or multiple rooms. Bucket arch is the most distinctive component in China wood structure building.