Teaching About
Chinese Houses
My Home, Your Home
At Home in
Ronald G. Knapp
EMAIL: knappr@newpaltz.edu
WEBSITE: http://www.newpaltz.edu/~knappr
A family is a group of usually related individuals living under one roof, a fundamental unit of social organization.
Where they live is usually called a home.
While a house (or dwelling) is the structure in which a family constitutes its home, not everyone has a home in a house.
Houses and Homes are general concepts, yet each term has very specific meanings.
Even apartment dwellers, who call the apartment their home, usually have visited a house,
whether that of a relative, friend, or a residence of an historic figure—a simple house or a great estate—that preserves a legacy of times past.
- This approach builds on the experiences of living in houses and homes anywhere.
- Houses and homes will be seen as dynamic places in which lives are constituted.
- Houses are primary sources in that they represent a complex form of material culture,
which can be read, analyzed, and understood.
ArchiCulture is the organizing thread linking house, home,
and family:
- Links the artifactual and the experiential
- Links conscious and subconscious decision-making
- Views dwellings as sites of reproduction, work,
socialization, and leisure
- Sees the dynamic quality of housing
- Highlights change within tradition
Within a DWELLING a FAMILY creates its HOME
Before
carrying out this exercise, students should read/review some of
the
highlighted printed and/or internet resources found below relating to houses in
general
and
Chinese houses in particular, including, most importantly,
the Asia for Educators website
(Element D Human Systems Standard 10:
Characteristics & Complexity of Earth's Cultural Mosaics)
http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/
and the
Yin
Yu Tang website
Understanding the Present and the Past:
- What is tangible and visible: objects of material culture, complex artifacts
- What is intangible & invisible: social organization, taste, comfort, ornamentation, symbols, ritual
- The whole and the parts
- How space is organized
Valuing the Past by Valuing Old Houses:
- Recreating the past in olde villages and towns
- Vernacular architecture and Living History
- Old houses tell us stories about the lives of people living in them
General House and
Home Questions:
- Does everyone
live in a house? What other spaces do people occupy (live in)?
- How do houses
and homes differ?
- In what ways
do houses reflect family relationships and the organization of family
life?
- How do
houses, homes, and families change over time?
- How do houses
differ from place to place in the USA?
- Why do houses
differ? What factors contribute to the differences and the
similarities?
- How do location and
climate—basic elements of geography—contribute to housing forms?
- What are the most striking differences seen in the variety of
Chinese houses?
- What are the common elements found in Chinese houses?
- What role do courtyards (yuanzi) and
skywells (tianjing) play in
Chinese houses?
- In what ways have Chinese houses changed over time?
- In what ways did the breakdown of China’s
imperial system, the revolution of 1911,
and subsequent
events to the present lead to changes in the nature of Chinese houses?
- What can we infer about people's lives from the spaces they created to live in?
- What does how people construct, decorate, and furnish their homes tell us about their resources, aesthetic preferences, and social habits?
Specific Aspects of Chinese
Houses/Dwellings
DIVERSITY:
- The North & The South
- Han Houses & Minority Houses
- Simple Dwellings & Grand Manors
COMMON FEATURES:
- Somewhat Ahistorical Character
- Composing Space
Symmetry
Axiality
Hierarchy
Enclosure
Open and Closed Spaces
Directional Orientation
·
Building Structure
Modularity—Wooden Framing Systems
·
Organic Quality of Houses
Grows/Expands/Evolves as Family Form Changes
DESIGNING WITH
NATURE:
SITING &
SITUATING A HOUSE—ESTABLISHING A HOME
- In
Quest of Harmony
Fengshui: mystical ecology
Dwellings as social templates:
ordering a family
House-building ritual
Building sorcery and defensive
measures
- In
Pursuit of Good Fortune
Summoning Good Fortune
Fu (Good Fortune) and Its Many
Forms
Narrative Tales: Filial piety
Reproducible Handouts
Concerning Chinese Houses (click here):
Kitchen God image
Fu character
Ancestral veneration (worship)
Floor plans
Wooden Framing Systems
Fengshui instrument
Vocabulary:
|
courtyard |
Floor Plan |
Kitchen God |
siheyuan |
vernacular Architecture |
|
fengshui |
fu character |
perspective drawing |
tianjing |
women’s quarters |
|
filial piety |
kang |
section Drawing |
veranda |
yuanzi |
Activity:
- Ask each
student to sketch a picture of the outside of his/her home, looking at it
from the front.
- Then ask to draw
a rough floor plan of her/his house and trace the outlines of each of the
rooms:
bedrooms, living room, family room, kitchen,
bathroom(s), and any other room.
- Name two
elements that are similar to those found in Chinese houses like Yin Yu
Tang.
- Name two
elements that are different from those found in Chinese houses like Yin Yu
Tang.
- How does Yin
Yu Tang differ from other Chinese houses seen in books and on the
internet?
- Offer some
possible explanations for any observed differences?
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Resources for
Teaching & Learning
About
Chinese
Architecture & Houses
Selected Websites (click the
name to go to the site)
** Especially Useful Sites
** Architecture 101 from
about.com
** About structures
** American Architectural Foundation—Architecture & the
Classroom
** arch-KID-ecture -
Architecture for Children
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHY STANDARDS
Element D Human Systems Standard 10:
Characteristics & Complexity of
Earth's Cultural Mosaics
Beauty and the Brick: Illustrated Books and Nineteenth
Century Domestic Design
** Beyond
China: Asia's Old Dwellings & Ancient Architecture
Building America: House and Home: 400 Years of Domestic
Architecture
Center
for Understanding the Built Environment (CUBE)—architivities
** China’s Homes: Teachers’ Guide: Visual Sourcebook of Chinese
Civilization
** Chinese
Architecture, Twin Cities Public Television, Inc Made in China
Chinese Folk Fine Arts
Information Service
** Chinese
Rural Architecture—Text: Ronald G. Knapp; Photographs: Olivier Laude
** Chinese Vernacular Architecture & General
Chinese Architecture
Come and Enjoy Architecture
** Dwellings around the Globe (Middle School Lesson Plan)
** Explore Korea: A Visit to Grandfather's House” Seattle Art
Museum
An interactive exploration of traditional
Korean houses, arts, and family activities for grades K-8
** Lesson Plans, including handouts and printed materials:
Promises to be the online source on
traditional & vernacular architecture around the world
Farmers
Museum, Cooperstown, NY
Historic House Trust of New
York City
Home Is Where the Architecture Is
International Association for the Study of Traditional Environments
(IASTE)
Lower
East Side Tenement Museum, New York City
The Tenement as History and Housing-WNET Public Television
** Nianhua Gallery: Chinese Folk Prints by James Flath
** Old Sturbridge Village
Heave 'er Up: Building a House is Hard
Work, Some Play
Plimoth Plantation:
The 1627 Pilgrim Village
Web-based study of a Victorian Home
Lesson Plans: Our Town, 1900 & Living Without
Technology
This Old House pbs series website
Using
Chinese Folktales in the Classroom (PDF Format) by Howard Giskin
Education about
Vernacular Architecture & Landscape Architecture: Resource Guide
World of Old Houses:
A Guide To Caring For And Restoring
Your Old House
** Yin Yu Tang, Peabody Essex Museum
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Selected Books:
Especially
Recommended are Highlighted
Reading levels For Children’s Books from Amazon.com
Berliner,
Berliner,
Nancy and Sarah Handler. Friends of the House: Furniture from China’s
Towns and Villages.
Bray,
Francesca. Technology and Gender: Fabrics of Power in Late Imperial
Bruun, Ole. Fengshui in
Crouch, Dora P. and June G. Johnson. Traditions in Architecture:
Dewey, Jennifer Owings. Animal
Architecture.
Dorros, Arthur. This Is My House.
Duquette, Keith. The
House Book (Picture Books).
Eisen,
David. Fun with Architecture: From the
Glenn,
Patricia Brown. Under Every Roof - A Kids' Style And Field Guide To The
Architecture Of American Houses.
Foster, Gerald. American Houses: A Field Guide to the
Architecture of the Home.
Kemery, Becky. Yurts: Living in the Round.
Knapp, Ronald G., ed.
Knapp,
Ronald G. ed. Chinese Landscapes: The Village as Place.
Knapp, Ronald G. China’s
Living Houses: Folk Beliefs, Symbols, and Household Ornamentation.
Knapp, Ronald G. China’s Old Dwellings.
Knapp, Ronald G. China’s Vernacular Architecture: House Form
and Culture.
Knapp,
Ronald G. The Chinese House: Craft, Symbol and the Folk Tradition.
Knapp,
Ronald G. Chinese Houses: The Architectural Heritage of a Nation (with
photographs by A. Chester Ong).
Knapp, Ronald G. and Kai-yin Lo, eds. House
Home Family: Living and Being Chinese.
USEFUL REFERENCE FOR TEACHERS & STUDENTS: Drawing
on the work of leading scholars in the fields of anthropology,
architecture, art, art history, geography, and history, House Home
Family explores and analyzes the functional, social, and symbolic
attributes of Chinese dwellings. Discount copies available at amazon.com
via Knapp website http://www.newpaltz.edu/~knappr
Sample chapter and illustrations viewable on
Knapp,
Ronald G. Overseas Chinese Houses: Transnational Architecture
in Southeast Asia and China (with photographs by A. Chester Ong).
Kwok, Man-Ho. The Feng Shui Kit: The
Lorenz, Albert. House:
Showing How People Have Lived Throughout History with Examples Drawn from the
Lives of Legendry Men and Women.
Millard,
Anne and Steve Noon (Illustrator).
Morris, Ann and Ken Heyman (Illustrator). Houses
and Homes.
Morse, Edward Sylvester. Japanese Homes and Their
Surroundings.
Oliver, Paul. Dwellings:
The House around the World.
Oliver, Paul. Dwellings: The Vernacular House
Worldwide.
Oliver, Paul, ed. Encyclopedia
of Vernacular Architecture of the World.
Oliver, Paul. Shelter
and Society.
Oliver, Paul. Shelter in
Palmer,
Martin. T’ung Shu: The Ancient Chinese Almanac.
Rapoport, Amos. House
Form and Culture.
Rudofsky, Bernard. Architecture without Architects: a Short Introduction to Non-pedigreed
Architecture.
Schoenauer, Norbert. 6,000
Years of Housing.
Shemie, Bonnie. Houses of
Slafer, Anna and Kevin Cahill. Why
Design? Activities and Projects from the
Smith, Albert Gary. The American
House Styles of Architecture Coloring Book.
Smith, Albert Gary. Historic
Houses of
Taylor,
Anne. Architecture and Children. Horizon Communications, 1988. Poster Collection.
The
Sourcebook: Learning by Design.
Weaver, Janice and Bonnie Shemie (Illustrator). Building
White, Sylvia.
Welcome Home! A World of Difference.
Wickes, Angela and Eric Thomas (Illustrator). A Farm Through
Time.
Winters, Nathan B. Architecture
Is Elementary: Visual Thinking Through Architectural Concepts.
Wood,
Tim. Houses and Homes: See Through History series.