The similarities and differences between Chinese and western architecture are discussed with examples.

Differences in building materials The choice of building materials between China and the West is influenced not only by their natural factors, but also by their cultural mentality. Since ancient times, civil engineering has been the main building material in China, while stone is the main building material in the West.

Chinese civilization, which originated in the Yellow River Basin and the Yangtze River Basin, has great natural differences between different regions because of its vast territory. However, civil engineering is always chosen as the building material, whether it is a building or a palace. China's primitive economy, which is dominated by agriculture, has made people have a special attachment to land and plants, and created a way of life in which China people have attached importance to the harmonious coexistence between man and nature since ancient times. Judging from the choice of ancient building materials, people naturally regard civil engineering as the most basic building material. Then the cosmology of "harmony between man and nature" is derived, which is also the harmony between man and nature. It can be said that the ancient people in China, who emphasized "harmony between man and nature", regarded civil structure as the most basic building material, which was essentially the embodiment of attaching importance to life affinity. According to research, the ancient caves, shallow caves, nests and other buildings in China were basically composed of loess and trees. With the progress of human production technology, building materials are also improving. However, the tradition of taking loess trees as the main building materials continued until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, which became the most basic feature of traditional architecture in China.

Sign. For example, in the south of China, due to the humid climate and lush vegetation, a large number of building materials are wood, except blue tile roofs and brick walls. The main buildings are white gray tiles, brick and wood stone carvings, pavilions and multi-storey courtyards.

The Huizhou school with a fixed tone is a typical wooden structure building form. Similarly, there are common wooden buildings and bamboo buildings in Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau. In the southwest of China, due to the humid climate, houses were lifted off the ground, and the so-called diaojiao building appeared. The materials used in these houses are all wood. However, bricks and loess are widely used as building materials in northern China, such as caves in the northwest and adobe houses in the northeast, all of which have inherited the ancient cave tradition in China. In contrast, ancient Greece and Rome, located on the Mediterranean coast, have rugged terrain, short rivers, lack of plains, loose soil, rich stone materials and abundant limestone and marble. This has also become the natural environmental basis for ancient westerners to choose stone as building materials. In addition, the west is dominated by hunting.

The primitive economy created the westerners' people-oriented cultural mentality, and then evolved into the philosophical tradition of "the body is divided into two", which influenced the westerners' social culture. Westerners choose stones as building materials, which on the one hand embodies their rational spirit of pursuing truth, and on the other hand emphasizes that in the relationship between man and nature, human power can overcome everything. Due to the development of productive forces and the influence of religious ideas, stones symbolize the mysterious and sacred beauty of religion. This "love stone complex" originated from primitive culture made stone architecture become the mainstream architecture in the history of European architecture for more than 2,500 years from ancient Greece to the rise of western modernity at the beginning of the 20th century.

Culture. Temples in ancient Greece, Colosseum in ancient Rome, and churches in medieval Europe are all buildings with stones as the main building materials. Until the Renaissance, classical buildings and official buildings such as palaces used stone as the main building material. China architecture, which takes civil engineering as building materials, tends to be simple, natural, beautiful and harmonious in texture, full of life and feminine beauty. However, western architecture with stone as the main building material is hard and not plastic, which gives people a strong feeling and embodies a masculine beauty.

Second, the difference of building structure.

Yu Hao, who was good at building wooden pagodas in the Northern Song Dynasty, said in his book Wood Classics: "Each family has three points, the upper point is above the beam, the middle point is above the ground, and the order is the lower point." Here, "on the beam" refers to the roof, and "below the ground, on the beam" refers to the house body and house.

The steps and abutments under the body are the foundation of the house. Yu Hao's description clearly points out the three components of China's architectural structure, namely, roof, roof and foundation. As a single building in China, it is composed of these three parts, whether it is a stacked beam, a bucket frame or a civil engineering mixed structure. In space modeling, the most striking structural feature of China architecture is the beauty of the roof. Traditional buildings in China mostly use beams and columns to support roofs. At the same time, in order to prevent the damage or decay of civil components, the bucket arch technology is adopted to make the eaves extend outward under the support of the bucket arch, so as to discharge accumulated water in rainy days.

The roof. Liang Sicheng once explained: "The curve of the roof of China, which has always been regarded as extremely strange and mysterious, is actually only the result of straightforward and natural structure. There is nothing beyond mechanical principles and affectation, and it is also extremely successful in practicality and aesthetics. All the curves and contours of this roof are towering above the top, and the eaves are as light as wings, making this extremely boring and clumsy part of the actual part the crown of the beauty of the whole building, which is a feature that other buildings do not have. " As Liang Sicheng said, there are all kinds of roofs in China, which have become the most wonderful part of architectural space modeling in China. This sloping roof spread like wings has its own characteristics in different historical periods. For example, the roofs of buildings in the Tang Dynasty have gentle slopes and far-reaching eaves, which cast beautiful shadows under the sunlight, making people deeply feel their natural and vivid beauty. And the roofs of buildings in Qing dynasty

The steep slope makes people feel solemn. Generally speaking, influenced by the Confucian idea of "neutralization", most of the buildings in China show the beauty of harmony and implication, and attach importance to the harmony, unity and fluency of all structural parts of the building. So no matter which part of the building is damaged, as small as a tree or a wall, it will give people a feeling of being incomplete. Comparatively speaking, western architecture pursues a structural form that is contrary to nature. Western architecture embodies the conquering spirit of westerners to transform nature under exaggerated scale and precise geometric scale. This kind of "digital structure" architecture emphasizes the ubiquitous artificial power in art space rather than the harmony between man and nature. For example, the elevation, plane and section of the Parthenon in ancient Greece have mutually suitable geometric proportions in internal and external space, thus constructing a kind of "digital structure" beauty. Just as the roof of China building is important to China architectural culture, western sculpture art is also an important cultural force to western architecture. After Baroque culture and Rococo culture, western architecture began to create a kind of sculpture beauty. It focuses on the sculpture of the building facade, not the structure. This sculpture is closely related to the structure. It can be said that the beauty of structure is created through sculpture, the structure is internal and the sculpture is external. Therefore, from the outside, the west has built.

A strong sense of sculpture. This sense of sculpture is a tenacious aesthetic feeling full of weight and strength, great, sublime and shocking. For example, Corbusier's passionate architectural work "Langxiang Church" is actually an imaginative sculpture. This classic creation not only embodies the architectural culture idea that western architecture pursues sculpture, but also embodies the inheritance and development of western architecture to traditional architectural culture in modern architectural culture.

3. Differences in architectural spatial layout Since ancient times, consanguinity has always been regarded as the basic unit of social structure in China, which has had a far-reaching impact on the layout of architectural groups in China. The spatial layout of buildings that we often see in China is mostly in the form of "quadrangles". China, which pays attention to harmony, embodies a kind of family-style collective beauty in architecture. Wang Guowei once said:

"Our family system is ancient. In a family, there are father and son brothers, each with his own horse. That is to say, as far as a man is concerned, his noble person has a wife and several concubines. A room can't hold a family, and neither the hall nor the room is a habitable place. But if you want to connect rooms, you must have a family of four. Four philosophers, the fourth floor. It is a house with four buildings, which makes its halls different from each other, east and west, north and south.

There are four halls outside and four rooms behind. They also gather in the atrium from north to south. This passage by Wang Guowei illustrates the influence of ancient family system in China on the architectural layout of China, and the mutual care between family structure and architectural layout. The most common courtyards are quadrangles, three courtyards and two courtyards. The general feature is that several buildings are surrounded by walls and corridors, one yard after another, forming a progressive building complex. Many courtyards are organized into a set of layouts, showing clear master-slave relationship and neat axis. In the assembly process of quadrangle buildings, the orderly layout of China buildings, the deep-rooted social order and the sober and secular rational spirit are reflected. Different from China's architecture, European architecture is not influenced by consanguinity and family concept, and it no longer pursues Chinese-style closed architectural culture. In the west, the square is a part of citizens' life, which grows and matures with the city. It is the center of the city's political, economic and cultural exchanges, and there are often government buildings, churches, theaters, shopping malls, temples and so on around the square. Square is a kind of architectural culture with rich national characteristics, such as the Italian Plaza Saint-Kyle in the Renaissance, which is the central square of Venice, surrounded by famous buildings such as the municipal government building, Saint-Simian Church, the Governor's Office and Saint-Kyle Library. St. Kyle Square provides an open entertainment and leisure place for the citizens, which is a place for people.

Use the outdoor living room to play. The openness of the square reflects the lively personality of westerners. In addition, the spatial layout of western architecture presents a vertical, upright and upward shape. At the same time, the emphasis on the subject consciousness and the social and cultural mentality of individual concept determines that western architecture attaches importance to the publicity of individual characteristics, and makes greater efforts to highlight their individual characteristics in spatial layout and build them as tall and straight as possible. For example, the main church in Strasbourg on the Rhine in France is as high as 142 meters; The church in Ulm, Germany is as high as 16 1 m; The Pantheon in ancient Rome has a dome with a diameter of 43.3 meters and a top height, and a concrete wall with a thickness of 6.2 meters. It is really a monster. The Colosseum in ancient Rome was huge. long

188m, minor axis156m, and the elevation of the auditorium is 48.5m, which is divided into four floors and can accommodate 80,000 spectators. These majestic single buildings, with huge volume and height, highlight the individual image of western architecture. This architectural space layout is a favorable embodiment of the open and democratic social and cultural atmosphere in the western world, reflecting the worship of gods and the fanatical use of technology by westerners.

Give people a spiritual support for progress.

Fourth, the spiritual differences.

Bruno Sevilla explained the conflict between man and God in European architectural culture in his book Architectural Space:

"Egypt = the era of awe, when people were committed to preserving the body, otherwise they could not be resurrected; Greece = a beautiful era, symbolizing a thoughtful rest in passion; Romanesque = the age of force and luxury; Early Christians = the age of piety and love; Goth = the age of longing; Renaissance = an era of elegance; Various revivals = the era of memories. He pointed out that this theme is constantly changing in the history of architecture. From the spiritual level, architecture, like other cultures, is also built on the cultural conflict between man and God.

As a cultural theme. The relationship between man and god in China's architectural culture should, of course, start with the most primitive view of the universe. Ancient China architecture is actually the universe in people's mind, and people draw an artificial space-time from the universe of heaven and earth.

At the scene, the building imitated the shape of the universe that people imagined. It can be said that in ancient China, the relationship between man and architecture was actually the relationship between man and the universe. China's universe originated from the origin of architectural culture, and it was originally integrated. "At the beginning of mankind, we can only take natural things to support ourselves. With a little progress, I can engage in agriculture and animal husbandry. Agriculture and animal husbandry are born of resources, salty from the ground, and abundant in the fields. Therefore, the knowledge of astronomy has been greatly improved at this time; The worship of astronomical phenomena is also flourishing. " As early as the Yin and Shang Dynasties, the concept of kingship on the ground was projected on the "Heaven", forming the concept of "Heaven Emperor" in people's minds. Then at the end of the Yin Dynasty and the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, "Heaven Emperor" and "Heaven" were regarded as gods. People often ask "Heaven Emperor" before doing anything.

. The ancient emperor was the replacement of "Heaven Emperor", and the emperor was in charge of the world, which transformed people's worship of heaven, earth and universe into worship of architectural activities. Comparatively speaking, western architecture has more obvious characteristics than China architecture when it reflects the conflict and harmonious relationship between man and God. For example, its religious buildings have left traces of "God" in the creation of space. Just as Hegel said, "Flying freely in a straight line makes its purpose disappear even if it exists, giving people an impression of independence and self-sufficiency."

. "It has and shows a clear purpose, but in its solemn and lofty silence, it transcends the simple purpose and shows its own infinity." The conflict between man and God in western churches is basically manifested in the overwhelming of human nature by the glory of God, but it does not mean the complete destruction of human nature. Before god, on the one hand, people become small, on the other hand, they put their own

The ideal is pinned on God. In China, due to the strength and tenacity of Confucian traditional culture, China has been a nation indifferent to religion since ancient times, which makes Chinese religious architecture converge the aura of God as much as possible and stretch the posture of people.