This book will be the first to offer an analysis of a city through its upper zone and the distinctive architectural features that make up this zone, at once a mode of human experience and a unit of the environment which exceeds single buildings, and so to deploy specially developed concepts (previously used in performance theory and ritual analysis and applied to the image) to further the analysis of the urban scene. What will be described will be a ‘felt environment’ allied to a rhetoric of architecture based upon an entirely original way of dividing up, or conceptualizing, urban space.. This book will offer an insightful yet playful decoding of our experience of the built environment applied to Beijing as an exciting, largely newly-built world-city, whose buildings stand in need of a commentary – especially the official ones and, by no means least, the ‘big name’ ones (CCTV and the Olympic/National stadium or ‘Bird’s Nest’).
At a glance
- Examines four Beijing landmarks, including the CCTV building and National Stadium
- Includes a chronological timeline of architectural archetypes
- Organizes architectural features into illustrated typologies with discussions of their meanings
Contents
1. Introduction: ‘Looking up’.
2. PART ONE: The Persistence of Tradition.
2.1 (Chapter 1) The Lure of Inherited Forms.
2.2 Interlude. Architectural Debates: The Space/Place Problem.
2.3 (Chapter 2) Chinese Whispers.
2.3.1 Episode: Architecture and Desire.
3. PART TWO: The Shock of the New. The 20th Century.
3.1 (Chapter 3) Building the Tower of Babel. The Skyscraper Tradition.
3.2 Interlude. Architectural Debates: Illusionism & Ideology.
3.3 (Chapter 4) City of Glass. Modernism & Beyond.
4. PART THREE: A Unitary Vision? Cityscapes, Old & New.
4.1 (Chapter 5) Reading Architecture! Points of Orientation.
4.1.1 i/ Whose stand-point? Horizon v Stand-alones
4.1.2 ii/ Points of view. Pointed Roof v Flat Roof Traditions
4.2 Afterword: Evolution of the Eye.
Objectives and Themes
Peter Nesteruk explores how Beijing’s buildings and skyline acquire visual and cultural meaning through their relationship with the sky. The work asks how architectural forms draw on inherited traditions and modern design, and how viewers experience them both individually and as part of the urban horizon.
- The skyline and the symbolism of building tops
- Chinese and Western architectural inheritance
- Skyscraper traditions, modernism and postmodern design
- Openings, glass, light and architectural rhetoric
- Collective street views and individual landmark buildings
- Pointed and flat roof traditions
Excerpt from the Book
The Phenomenology of Openings: The Feng Shui of the Modern Building
The Experience of Openings. Essentially a combination of three forms of opening up a building to the outside, the new sense of openings, of the opening up of a modern building, is made-up of elements taken from the Entrance (the Arch), the Window and the Courtyard (the space that results within). Such spaces are fronted by tall openings from the side and often supplemented with openings from above. Our view through the window or opening as onto a space lit as if from above (even if that light is that which enters from above ourselves as we make an entrance or just gaze in from the outside).
In many ways what we experience here is the three dimensional equivalent of the intervening white space that is such a feature of Eastern art (the spacing between the grounds of the traditional shuimo 水墨 or ink-wash landscape). These are the absences that signal the infinite and eternal realms of religious, artistic and cultural tradition (the ‘quietism’ of the Dao, or the enlightening ‘absence’ that is the aim of the Chan/Zen school of Buddhism). A symptom of a non-monotheistic ‘empty centre’, or the ‘non-representable’ (in western philosophical terms).
Openings the passage of light; the passage of spirits. This somewhat dramatic idea comes from the idea that energy must be allowed to pass through a building. Historically, such (usually small) windows are now most frequently seen in the walls of temples where they function as ventilators called ‘Dragon Windows’ (‘dragons’ are spirits in Chinese mythology, akin to water sprites and other ‘spirits of the place’ in Western mythology). There is a sense of a debt to place and to the demands of cultural history. Like the roof curve which has inspired so many recent Chinese architectural creations (see sections on Sky Beacons, The Return of the Cornice, and Pagodas), so with the new architecture of the opening; old becomes new as modern techniques and styles incorporate ancient ideas and their architectural embodiments. Metaphorically: we are offered the sense of flow, or the appearance or possibility of flow, through an otherwise closed building; of the possibility of a passage through, and so the guarantee of the access to light, of its ability to move through a building. The important thing is that the building in question does not appear as a blockade, a blocking of the space around; so not appearing as an obstacle, as an unwelcome bringer of urban claustrophobia, of the sense of being visually ‘fenced-in’.
Chapter Summaries
Introduction: ‘Looking up’. The introduction presents the skyline as a collective visual environment and introduces the “Solar” as the uppermost zone of urban architecture.
(Chapter 1) The Lure of Inherited Forms. This chapter examines cornices, arches, windows and courtyards as inherited forms adapted to modern buildings. Examples include the Capital Museum and the CCTV building.
Interlude. Architectural Debates: The Space/Place Problem. The interlude considers how spaces become meaningful places and questions simple distinctions between public and private space.
(Chapter 2) Chinese Whispers. The chapter explores traditional Chinese roof structures and their echoes in contemporary architecture, from pagoda-like tops to sky beacons and watchtower motifs.
Episode: Architecture and Desire. This episode relates the ground, middle and upper levels of the urban scene to identity, desire and beliefs about a wider order.
(Chapter 3) Building the Tower of Babel. The Skyscraper Tradition. The chapter traces the influence of the Palazzo, historicism, Art Nouveau and Art Deco on tall buildings and their uppermost features.
Interlude. Architectural Debates: Illusionism & Ideology. The interlude discusses functionalism, decoration and visual comfort, including their implications for transport buildings.
(Chapter 4) City of Glass. Modernism & Beyond. The chapter considers modernist and postmodern buildings through glass façades, angular and curved forms, metal structures and illuminated tops.
(Chapter 5) Reading Architecture! Points of Orientation. The final chapter contrasts collective views of streets and horizons with perceptions of individual buildings, then considers pointed and flat roof traditions.
Afterword: Evolution of the Eye. The afterword reflects on the relationship between architectural form, perception and the self.
Keywords
Beijing architecture, visual anthropology, urban skyline, architectural symbolism, solar skyline, Chinese architectural tradition, skyscrapers, modernism, postmodernism, architectural perception, historicism, glass façades, roof forms, urban space
Frequently Asked Questions
What is this work about?
It examines Beijing’s architecture through the visual and symbolic relationship between buildings, their uppermost features and the sky.
What are its main themes?
Its themes include architectural inheritance, skyline design, modernism, visual symbolism and the experience of buildings in their urban setting.
What is the work’s central aim?
It aims to explore how architectural forms shape the meanings and experiences associated with Beijing’s buildings and collective horizon.
What method does the author use?
The author uses visual and interpretive architectural analysis, organizing building features into typologies and discussing their histories, appearances and possible meanings.
What does the main body cover?
It moves from inherited Chinese and Western forms to skyscraper traditions and modernist design, before considering ways of viewing cityscapes and individual buildings.
Which keywords characterize the work?
Key terms include visual anthropology, Beijing architecture, urban skyline, architectural symbolism, modernism and architectural perception.
What does the author mean by the “Solar”?
The term refers to the uppermost zone of urban architecture: the features encountered as the eye moves up buildings towards the sky.
Which Beijing landmarks are discussed?
The work discusses buildings including the CCTV headquarters, the National Stadium, the National Swimming Centre and the National Theatre.
How does the book approach traditional Chinese architecture?
It describes features such as roof curves, bracket sets and columns, then examines how traditional forms are copied, adapted or evoked in modern buildings.
How are streetscapes distinguished from individual buildings?
The author contrasts the shared, horizontally layered experience of a street or horizon with the view of a single building encountered as a distinct object.
- Quote paper
- Peter Nesteruk (Author), 2012, Bejing Solarscape: A Visual Anthropology, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/190197
