Tujia traditional houses are

Tujia folk houses have always been famous, especially Diaojiaolou. It flies with wings, walks around the fence, takes off, is light and slim, and has a beautiful posture. Usually back to the hillside, facing the stream or dam to form a community, rising from the back layer to the depth. The bamboo forests in front of and behind the building are uneven, which sets off the outline of the building and looks very beautiful. Tujia diaojiao building is mostly placed on the cliff. Because the base is narrow, cantilever type is often used to expand the space. The bottom is supported by wooden pillars, so people can't live there. At the same time, for the convenience of walking, a railing eaves gallery (called silk eaves by Tujia people) was set at the cantilever. Most of the cross houses in the diaojiao building are connected with the main house of the bungalow, forming a "diaojiao building". With the development and change of the times, the architectural form of Tujia Diaojiao Building in western Hunan has gradually improved, and different aesthetic artistic styles have emerged. Here, the author will make an in-depth analysis according to its modeling combination, appearance form and scale.

1. Cantilever diaojiao building

The cantilever diaojiao building is named after picking out a corridor on the second floor, which is the earliest form and main architectural method of Tujia diaojiao building. Buildings generally have two or three floors, with corridors on the first, second and third sides respectively. The width of the corridor is about 2.8 feet, and the hanging columns of the corridor are supported by cantilever beams. Generally, the depth of eaves is two or three. This diaojiao building is light, quiet and elegant, with high angle, fine decoration and light shape as its main features. Topographically, diaojiao buildings often occupy unfavorable terrain, such as sloping fields, cliffs and gullies. And the main part is located on a flat base. There are three types of diaojiao building from the combination of diaojiao building and main body: one-sided diaojiao building, left-right asymmetric diaojiao building and left-right symmetric diaojiao building, among which one-sided diaojiao building is the most common. In addition, Tujia people also have a diaojiao building that does not serve as a gallery. The main part of the main house is connected with the diaojiao building of the wing at right angles, which seems to have formed a conventional "rule". Transparent columns and light corners become the focus of vision. For example, some diaojiao buildings in Yongshun Laosicheng, Zejia and Shidi have similar characteristics.

Gan Lan Diaojiaolou

2. The so-called "dry-column" diaojiao building is a building form with the ground floor overhead and the upper floor living. This architectural form is generally located on both sides of the river, with mountains as the background and floodplain as the foil, and spreads along the river bank in groups, and rooms are often separated by horse-headed walls. However, there are also such living forms in Tujia commercial towns. For example, Wangcun is a commercial ancient town where Tujia people live in compact communities. Its characteristic is that the horizontal line formed by cornices, waist eaves and waist corridors is in sharp contrast with the vertical supports crisscrossed below. This kind of slender columns with different sizes, irregular arrangement and crisscross embodies the primitive beauty like ruins and has a strong impact on people's visual aesthetics.