Chinese architecture

A highly homogeneous traditional architecture which repeated throughout the centuries established types of simple, rectangular, low-silhouetted buildings costructed according to fixed canons of proportions and construction methods. Stone and brick were used for structures demanding strength and permanence, such as fortifications, enclosure walls, tombs, pagodas, and bridges. Otherwise buildings were mostly constructed in a wooden framework of columns and beams supported by a platform, with nonbearing curtain or screen walls. The most prominent feature of the Chinese house was the tile-covered gabled roof, high-pitched and upward-curving with widely overhanging eaves resting on multiple brackets. Separate roofs over porches surrounding the main buildings or, in the case of pagodas, articulating each floor created a distinctive rhythmical, horizontal effect.

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