Fujian tulou

THIS PRESENTATION IS ABOUT ONE OF THE VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURES OF CHINA.

THE FUJIAN TULOUS

RESEARCH AND PRESENTATION BY: ARCHITECT S.Q.T (LIA ALI) [PAKISTAN]

WHAT IS A TULOU ?

WHAT IS MEANT BY FUJIAN?

RESEARCH AND PRESENTATION BY: ARCHITECT S. Q .T (LIA ALI) [PAKISTAN]



Fujian tulous are the Earthen Structures.

They are a type of Chinese Rural Dwelling of the Hakka in the mountainous areas of the FUJIAN province of China.

They are 700 to 1000 years old and in the Fujian province there number is found to be around 20,000.




An EARTHEN STRUCTURE is a building or structure that is largely made up of soil.

Because of the wide availability of soil, it has been in use by Men since prehistoric times.

It may be combined with other materials and baked or compressed to add up strength.


RESEARCH AND PRESENTATION BY: ARCHITECT S. Q .T (LIA ALI) [PAKISTAN] MUD HOUSES IN AFGHANISTAN

TAOS MISSION CHURCH, NEW MEXICORESEARCH AND PRESENTATION BY: ARCHITECT S. Q .T (LIA ALI) [PAKISTAN]


A MODERN COB HOUSE IN U.K

ANCIENT ZIGGURAT AT ALI AIR BASE IRAQRESEARCH AND PRESENTATION BY: ARCHITECT S. Q .T (LIA ALI) [PAKISTAN]

OLD MUD MINARET IN VILLAGE OF KHARANGH IRAN


ADOBE BRICKSRESEARCH AND PRESENTATION BY: ARCHITECT S. Q .T (LIA ALI) [PAKISTAN]

Earth structure materials may be as simple as mud or it can be made a COB.

Cob, cobb or clom (in Wales) is a natural building material made from subsoil, water, some kind of fibrous organic material (typically straw), and sometimes lime.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_building

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsoil

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organic_material

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straw

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lime_(material)

RESEARCH AND PRESENTATION BY: ARCHITECT S. Q .T (LIA ALI) [PAKISTAN]BUILDING A WALL OUT OF COB

Sturdy buildings may also be built with turf or SOD.

Sod or turf is grass and the part of the soil beneath it held together by the roots, or a piece of thin material.

SOD FARMING


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soil

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root

ROLLED SODRESEARCH AND PRESENTATION BY: ARCHITECT S. Q .T (LIA ALI) [PAKISTAN]

Soil maybe stabilized by the addition of lime and cement and maybe compacted to form the RAMMED EARTH.

More examples are in coming slides.


RAMMED EARTH HOUSE BY PAUL WEINER





The ruins of Han dynasty (CHINA) in which a tower was built out of rammed earth.

The Hakka , sometimes Hakka Han, are Han Chinese people who speak Hakka Chinese and have links to the provincial areas of Guangdong, Jiangxi, Guangxi, Hong Kong, Sichuan, Hunan and Fujian in China.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Han_Chinese

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hakka_Chinese

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangdong

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiangxi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guangxi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hong_Kong

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sichuan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunan

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujian

A tulou is usually a large, enclosed and fortified earth building.

It is most commonly rectangular or circular in configuration, with very thick load-bearing rammed earth walls.

It has between three and five stories high and housing up to 80 families.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulou

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_building

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_building

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rammed_earth


A CLOSER LOOK

Smaller interior buildings are often enclosed by these huge peripheral walls .

They can contain halls, storehouses, wells and living areas.

The whole structure resembles a small fortified city.

Examples are shown in these three pictures for a round tulou, followed by other 03 for Rectangular tulou.

ROUND TULOU NUMBER 01






RESEARCH AND PRESENTATION BY: ARCHITECT S. Q .T (LIA ALI) [PAKISTAN]RECTANGULAR TULOU 01

RECTANGULAR TULOU 02RESEARCH AND PRESENTATION BY: ARCHITECT S. Q .T (LIA ALI) [PAKISTAN]

RESEARCH AND PRESENTATION BY: ARCHITECT S. Q .T (LIA ALI) [PAKISTAN]RECTANGULAR TULOU 03

THE FORTIFIED OUTER STRUCTURES ARE FORMED BY COMPACTING EARTH, MIXED WITH STONE, BAMBOO, WOOD AND OTHER READILY AVAILABLE MATERIALS, TO FORM WALLS UP TO 6 FEET (1.8 M) THICK. BRANCHES, STRIPS OF WOOD AND BAMBOO CHIPS ARE OFTEN LAID IN THE WALL AS ADDITIONAL REINFORCEMENT. THE RESULT IS A WELL-LIT, WELL-VENTILATED, WINDPROOF AND EARTHQUAKE-PROOF BUILDING THAT IS WARM IN WINTER AND COOL IN SUMMER.




Tulous usually have only one main gate, guarded by 4–5-inch-thick (100–130 mm) wooden doors reinforced with an outer shell of iron plate. The top level of these earth buildings has gun holes for defensive purposes.





A total of 46 Fujian Tulou sites have been inscribed in 2008 by UNESCO as World Heritage Site, as "exceptional examples of a building tradition and function exemplifying a particular type of communal living and defensive organization [in a] harmonious relationnship with their environment".RESEARCH AND PRESENTATION BY: ARCHITECT S. Q .T (LIA ALI) [PAKISTAN]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Heritage_Site

Largest round tulou The Chengqi lou in Yongding county has long being considered to be the largest tulou, with diameter 62.5 meter. However, Huang Hanmig discovered that Shunyu lou in Nanjing county is even larger, with diameter 74.1. This tulou was built in 1933, it has four layers, with outer wall 15 meter high and 1.6 meter thick, with 64 rooms around a circle, one main entrance and two side doors. However, the title of "largest tulou" belongs to Fusheng lou, built since 1968 and completed in 1981; its diameter measured 77.42 meters. It is located in Chendong village of Yongding county. Smallest tulouCuilin lou in Nankeng township of Nanjing county is the smallest tulou, with diameter of 14 meter; this three storey tulou was built in 1617. Oldest tulouThe ellpitic tulou Qiyun lou in Shajian village of Hua An county is the oldest tulou, built in 1371.

Images if the largest round tulou is made a part of presentation. They are in next slides. CHENGQI LOU IN YONGDING COUNTY.



YONGDING TULOU CLUSTER (VIEW FROM SATTELITE)

YONGDING LOU CLUSTER INTERIOR VIEW


Hongkeng village, Chengqi lou Yongding China


WROUGHT IRON INDICATES USE OF MODERN MATERIAL WITH THE PASSAGE OF TIMERESEARCH AND PRESENTATION BY: ARCHITECT S. Q .T (LIA ALI) [PAKISTAN]


CHENGQI LOU HAS TWO MAIN GATES AND TWO SIDE GATES. 15TH GENERATION JIANG CLAN WITH 57 FAMILIES AND 300 PEOPLE LIVE HERE.

AN INSIDE GATE IN ONE OF THE TULOUS IN HONGKENG VILLAGE


INSIDE-CHENGQI-LOU



LEASE ON ANCIENT BUILDINGS OF CHINA

THE INTERIOR, VENDORS SET UP THEIR UMRBELLA FOR BUSINESS, ITI S VISIBLE IN THIS IMAGE.


VIEW FROM CORRIDOR ON THE TOP FLOOR


HAKKA HOUSES CAN BE BOOKED AND HAS BECOME A TOURIST ATTRACTION


HAKKA HOUSES CAN BE BOOKED AND HAS BECOME A TOURIST ATTRACTION


The layout of Fujian tulou followed the Chinese dwelling tradition of "closed outside, open inside" concept.

It has an enclosure wall with living quarters around the peripheral and a common courtyard at the centre.

A small building at the center with open front served as an ancestral hall for ancestry worshipping, festivals, meetings, weddings, funerals and other ceremonial functions.

Ground floor plan includes circle, semicircle, oval, square, rectangle, and irregular pentagon. The foundation of tulou building was built with paved stones on top of compacted earth ground, in two to three tiers.

There is a circular drain around the top tier foundation to prevent rainwater from damaging the tulou wall.


In most cases, the weight bearing outer wall of tulou consists of two sections.

The lower section is built from cut stone blocks or river cobbles held together with a lime, sand and clay mixture to a height of about one or two metres, depending upon the regional flood water level.

The compacted earth wall stacked on top of the stone section.

The construction of earth wall from compacted earth mixed with sticky rice and reinforced with horizontal bamboo sticks dates back even before the construction of tulou.


The walls were built inclined toward the centre, such that the natural force of gravity pushes the wall together.

This inward inclination method was also used in the construction of Pagoda Temple.

The thickness of the Tulou wall decreases with height.

The bottom two storeys of tulou are solid with no window nor gun hole.

Windows are open only from the third to fifth storeys, because rooms at the bottom storey served as family storage rooms and the upper storeys are living quarters.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pagoda_of_Fogong_Temple

The rooftops are covered with baked clay tiles, arranged radially ;

λ insertion technique are used at regular intervals to compensate for larger circumference at the outside.

(Majority of roof tiles are laid from top to bottom, the gap caused by radial layout was compensated by small sections of tiles laid in λ shape inserts).

This technique allowed the tiles to be laid radially without visible gaps, and without the use of small tiles at top, larger tiles at bottom.


Circular corridors from 2nd to uppermost level were made of wood boards laid on horizontal wooden beams with one end inserted into the earth wall. The corridors are protected with a circle of wooden railings.

Stairwells are distributed evenly around the corridors, four sets of stairwells being the usual number. Each stairwell leads from ground floor to the highest floor.

Public water wells in groups of two or three are usually located at the centre court; more luxurious tulous have in-house water well for each household in ground floor kitchen.

THE EAVES USUALLY EXTEND ABOUT TWO METRES, PROTECTING THE EARTH WALL FROM DAMAGE BY RAINWATER POURING FROM THE EAVES.

THE WOODEN FRAME SUPPORTING THE ROOFTOP HAD NO DOUGONG ELEMENTS COMMON IN TRADITIONAL CHINESE BUILDING.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dougong

Dougong literally: "cap [and] block" is a unique structural element of interlocking wooden brackets, one of the most important elements in traditional Chinese architecture.

The use of dugong first appeared in buildings of the late centuries BC and evolved into a structural network that joined pillars and columns to the frame of the roof.

Dougong was widely used in the ancient Chinese during the spring and Autumn Period (770–476 BC) and developed into a complex set of interlocking parts.

The pieces are fitted together by joinery alone without glue or fasteners, due to the precision and quality of the carpentry.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bracket_(architecture)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_architecture

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_and_Autumn_Period

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodworking_joints

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adhesive

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fastener

Colorful dugong supporting a structure in Japan.

Some more are shown in coming slides and there is one very famous Modern Architecture inspired by the DUGONG , a Chinese Architectural element.

RESEARCH AN

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.T (LIA ALI) [PAKISTAN]

RESEARCH AN

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BY: ARCHITECT S. Q

.T (LIA ALI) [PAKISTAN]



The 2010 Chinese Expo Pavilion , inspired by the dugong design.



Unlike other housing structures around the world with architecture illustrating social hierarchy, Fujian Tulou exhibits its unique characteristic as a model of community housing for equals.

All rooms are built the same size with the same grade of material, same exterior decoration, same style of windows and doors, and there is no "penthouse" for "higher echelons“.

A small family owns a vertical set from ground floor to "penthouse" floor, while a larger family would own two or three vertical sets.


Tulous are usually occupied by one large family clan of several generations; some larger tulou has more than one family clan.

Besides the building itself, many facilities such as water wells, ceremonial hall, bathrooms, wash rooms, and weaponry are shared property.

Even the surrounding land and farmland, fruit trees etc. are shared.

The residents of tulou farmed communally.

This continued into the 1960s even during the people's commune period; at that time a tulou was often occupied by one commune production team.

Each small family has its own private property, and every family branch enjoys its privacy behind closed doors.


In the old days, the allotment of housing was based on family male branch; each son was counted as one branch.

Public duties such as organization of festivals, cleaning of public areas, opening and closing of the main gate, etc., is also assigned to a family branch on a rotational basis.


All branches of a family clan share a single roof, symbolizing unity and protection under a clan.

All the family houses face the central ancestral hall, symbolizing worship of ancestry and solidarity of the clan.

When a clan grows, the housing expands radially by adding another outer concentric ring, or by building another tulou close by, in a cluster. Thus, a clan stays together.


Nowadays newer housing with modern facilities is popping up in rural China.

Many residents have bought more modern houses and moved out, or live in a larger town or city for better jobs.

However they keep their ancestral tulou apartment homes under padlock, only returning home during festival for family reunion.

DYS: Crane Lake Hakka Some popular Fujian Tulous inspired designs are shown in the next slides.




Thank you !


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