Page 28 - JCAU-4-2

Multi-Level Housing Governance in Rural Settlement
The courtyard houses here are arranged the space between two rows of columns from
parallel to the mountain contours. Thus, front to back.
the entrances of three of the four houses (i) Enveloping
are facing the front river. But the
orientation of entrance in traditional
Chinese houses is a complex result of
various considerations including
Fengshui, wealth accumulation,
geographical conditions, and many more.
In this neighborhood, the courtyard gate
of the Republican house separated from
SSCH rotates towards the east to avoid
facing the gap of the opposite mountains.
It was the personal preferences of the
family who lived in the house and who
based on geomancy.
(iii) Orientation
In this neighborhood, the orientations of
all the main buildings were kept the same
during the four periods. For the OTH, all
houses face the west where the Beixi
Stream (北溪, north stream) flows, and
where the Nanjiangjun Mountain (南将
军 山 , south general mountain) stands.
For the SSCH, all houses face the Xixi
Stream (西 溪 , west stream), with the
mountain at the back. However, the wing
buildings in the courtyard house have
different orientations due to the
courtyard layout. But from the overall
perspective of the courtyard house in
these two cases, all houses in the
neighborhood still have the same
orientation.
3.2 Building fabric level
The building fabric level involves the study of
the spatial structure of buildings as one group.
Three parts are discussed, including the
envelope that encloses the interior of a
building, the structure that bears the load of a
building, and the combination of building
groups.
The construction of houses in rural
Taishun is based on the spatial unit of liu (榴,
a file of space). A liu is a unit of dwellings
both in terms of space and construction in the
Taishun county. It is a word in the local
dialect equaling to ‘bay’ in traditional
Chinese architecture terminology. It refers to
AccScience Publishing
Lin & Jia
Both these two houses were built in
traditional style using traditional
construction material of wood. The
buildings are covered by wood panels.
Most of them are attached with
additional wooden doors while the
original traditional styles are retained for
the windows. Although the accurate time
cannot be ascertained, most of the doors,
windows, and wood panels were
probably repaired and replaced several
times throughout the lifetime of the
building, something like a daily
maintenance of the building.
The envelope of the SSCH has
changed little indeed. Glass windows are
added in the middle of the second floor
where the original space is open directly
to the outside. However, comparatively,
the transformation of the envelope of
OTH is more apparent. In the OTH, its
end liu of the right-wing building has
been pushed forward. It extrudes from
the original place. This change has been
made by the male owner in 1990. After
1990, the children of the old couple
moved out and built their own houses.
Thus, the living space seemed to be
spacious to the old couple. Considering
the convenience of living, the old man
revised the end liu by moving the stove
from the back to the front. Meanwhile,
the front wall of the end liu was pushed
a step forward to create a better entrance
going inside the room.
The major change of the building’s
form happened on the left-wing building.
The end two lius was rebuilt into modern
style in 1996‒1997 after the old
structures have been destroyed by flood.
The form and material of the new parts
transform drastically and radically. The
doors and windows built for the new
dwellings are distinct from the
traditional ones. The gates are made of
metal, and the windows are made of
glass with a steel grill outside for safety
6