Characteristics of South and North Dwellings in China

First, the most distinctive features in the north are quadrangles in Beijing and caves in the northwest loess plateau.

Beijing quadrangle 1:

In Beijing's hutongs, there are many quadrangles surrounded by houses in the east, south, west and north. This is the yard. The gate of the courtyard is generally opened in the southeast corner or northwest corner, and the north room in the courtyard is the main room. The main house is built on the masonry abutment, which is bigger than other houses and is the living room of the owner.

There are east and west wing rooms on both sides of the yard, where the younger generation live. There is a corridor between the main room and the wing room for people to walk and rest. The walls of quadrangles and houses facing the street generally do not open windows, and the environment in the courtyard is closed and quiet.

2. Cave dwellings

Earth kiln is a loess cave dug by hillside, which is warm in winter and cool in summer, and has the best thermal insulation and sound insulation effect. Stone kilns and brick kilns are all arched holes made of stone or brick first, and then covered with thick loess, which is both strong and beautiful. Another kind of cave dwelling is to dig a huge hole in the ground and then dig a loess cave dwelling, which is more comfortable. Because building caves does not require reinforced cement, the cost is relatively low.

Secondly, the most distinctive features in the south are the ancient houses in Anhui and the Hakka earth buildings in Fujian and Guangdong.

1, Anhui ancient dwellings

Blue tiles and white walls are the outstanding impression of Huizhou architecture. The patchwork horse head wall not only has the beauty of modeling, but also has the practical function of preventing fire and blocking the spread of fire. One of the characteristics of Huizhou folk houses is high walls and deep courtyards. On the one hand, it is to prevent thieves, on the other hand, it is the need for mobile families suffering from displacement to gain psychological security.

2. Hakka Tulou

Tulou is the residence of Hakkas in northeast Guangdong and southwest Fujian. The ancestors of Hakkas are Han people who migrated to the south from the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River more than 900 years ago. Because most of the Hakkas live in remote mountainous areas, their ancestors created this huge residence-Tulou, in order to prevent bandits from harassing them and protect the safety of their families.

A tulou can accommodate dozens of families and hundreds of people. Earth buildings are round and square, and the most distinctive one is round earth buildings. The circular building consists of two or three circles. The outer circle is more than ten meters high and has one or two hundred rooms.

They are poor, rich and noble, and each family is equally assigned to a room from the bottom to the top. Their uses are very uniform. The first floor is a kitchen and dining room, the second floor is a warehouse, and the third and fourth floors are bedrooms.

The second circle has two floors, 30 to 50 rooms, usually guest rooms; In the middle is the ancestral hall, which can accommodate hundreds of people for public activities. There are wells, bathrooms and toilets in the tulou, just like a small city. The tall and peculiar Hakka earth buildings have been praised by architects all over the world.

Extended data:

The Ecological Philosophy of China Dwellings;

The ecological philosophy of China's folk houses is dominated by traditional philosophy, and a major feature of China's traditional philosophy is the organic connection and unity of philosophical concepts and ecological concepts. Therefore, to explore the ecological spirit of traditional houses in China, we must analyze and study it from the height of China's traditional philosophy.

Philosophy is a science and the crystallization of human wisdom. Modern ecological philosophy has not been put forward for a long time, but the concept of ecology is integrated in philosophy, but it has already existed clearly in the ancient oriental cultural system represented by China.

China has long recognized that man and nature are an inseparable whole, and China's philosophy of "the unity of man and nature" is a summary of this understanding. "The Unity of Heaven and Man" is the most important basic idea of China's ancient philosophy.

Here, "heaven" is an all-encompassing nature and an object; "Man" is a person who lives with heaven and earth and is the subject. The unity of man and nature is the unity of subject and object, which forms the fundamental unity of the two.

Heaven, earth and man are an organic cycle and a whole system with metabolism. Dr Needham of Britain spoke highly of China's ancient organic holistic view of heaven, earth and man, and thought that "China developed an organic philosophy of the universe".

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