Jiangnan Water Towns and Its Potential Development in the Modern Time

Crisscrossed with countless canals, the Jiangnan or Yangtze Delta region in southeast China is dotted with water towns which are among China’s richest cities. Its remarkable hydrography makes the area’s traditional life pattern closely tight to the omnipresent water environment. During a time when waterway was the major transportation, the canals in Jiangnan provides the water towns more access to business. The built of the Grand Canal in Sui Dynasty (581-618 AD), which connects the capital Beijing to the Jiangnan water town Hangzhou, further pushed the economic trade and cultural exchange of the north and south China. Ever since the Sui Dynasty, the word “Jiangnan” has been closely associated with the word “prosperous”. Dwellings in Jiangnan water towns are usually two stories high, and are built right by the canals. The first floor is usually for residence shops, while the upper floor is for private residences. The architectural style of the buildings in Jiangnan water towns is very similar to that of the Huizhou area, with black tile roofs, white plaster walls and central skywells. However Jiangnan residences don’t have the high perimeter walls that envelope the whole building. Instead, they open the buildings right to the waterborne environment around.The scale of the buildings in Jiangnan is also smaller compared with that of Huizhou, since the landscape in Jiangnan is largely confined by the canals. Various elegant waterfront structures, such as stone docks, waterside pavilions, teahouses and stone bridges are the hubs of the daily activities of the Jiangnan water towns.


Jiangnan watertowns, in some ways, are very similar to the world’s famous water town Venice, Italy. Stretches across 118 small islands in the Venetian Lagoon, Venice’s daily life if largely depend on water-traffics. The city has 117 canals and 401 bridges, with the major canal, Grand Canal running through the center of the city as the major traffic corridor. Jiangnan water towns are similar to Venice in that they are also run through by a central canal, the Grand Canal of China, and crisscrossed by hundreds of small canal branches. Similar to Venice, Jiangnan water towns’ major traffic is also water way. What’s more interesting, Jiangnan water towns even have a counterpart of the Gondola, which is called black-awning boat. The architecture of Venice and Jiangnan water towns is slightly different. Although both used the form of stilt houses, Venice’s houses are often in direct contact with water. Also strikingly similar are the economies of Jiangnan water towns and Venice. They were both the leading commerce centers of their local area in about a thousand years ago. Given the similarity in their waterborne environment and prosperous economy, Jiangnan water towns were often called as “Venice in the East”.


Venice and Gondola vs. Jiangnan water towns and black-awning boat

However, with the rapid development of highways, automobiles, railways and other landway traffics, the role of water traffic played in trade and commerce is weakening. In recent decades, in a rush to modernize and industrialize, far too many traditional water towns hastily sacrificed their past forms in the process of building new houses and factories, filling in canals and the constructing roads. As a result, the formerly vibrant Jiangnan canal network is in very bad conservation, may tributaries of the Grand Canal faced the problems of clogging, water pollution, and may parts of the Grand Canal is even no longer navigable. How to conserve, redevelop and rediscover the potential use of waterfronts became a great challenge to Jiangnan water towns.

The Grand Canal and Jiangnan watertown

Here we are going to look closer at Hangzhou, one of the prosperous Jiangnan water towns and its strategy of water channel conservation. The city of Hangzhou is the terminal of the Grand Canal. The canal runs through the northern part of the city. Starting from 1996, the government of Hangzhou carried out a Grand Canal Redevelopment Project, and its first phase was completed in 2006 with rather remarkable effects. The master plan centered on the spatial and functional redevelopment of the waterfronts, with is main goal as making the Grand Canal better serve for people’s modern life. In the project master plan, the new waterfront of the Great Canal is going to have multiple functions; it will not only keep its traditional water traffic function, but also incorporate functions such as ecological center for species, public parks and convene space, historical and cultural center, and tourism spot. These goals were achieved by the government’s effort in cleaning the watercourse to facilitate the barges, building public parks, opening public water transportation such as waterbus, and establishing a Grand Canal Museum which records the history and cultural relics of the canal.

Building and redeveloping a great waterfront to serve for a better urban public space is not just a problem faced by old water towns like Hangzhou, but is also the shared questions of many waterside cities in the world. Having looked into several successful cases of waterfront redevelopment in the world, I summarized several major points of how to build a successful waterfront.
1) The planning of the redevelopment of water front should start with looking at the big picture of the city—what role is the waterfront going to play in the city? Do we want it to be the central artery of the city where the city unfolds and radiates from, or we want it to be only a center of a part of the city? The answer to this question largely depends on the natural location of the waterway. For example, the Seine River runs through the center of Paris, so the central location of the river enables the waterfront to become the focal point of the city. In contrast, the Brooklyn Bridge Park, which lies in the east side of Brooklyn, would be better planned as a local community gathering space. The Grand Canal runs through the north part of Hangzhou city, where used to be the industrial region of the city, and ends at the downtown district of Hangzhou. This location may let us plan the waterfront as have dual roles: in the northern industrial district it may serve as the public green space for local communities, while in the downtown part it may serve as the cultural and commercial center of the city.
2) Public goals should be set as the primary goal. Avoiding the waterfront from becoming seclude to a small community is the key of keeping the dynamic and liveliness of the waterfront. A negative lesson can be draw from the planning of the Brooklyn Bridge Park. Several high residential towers inside the park and at the entrance of the park made the Brooklyn Bridge Park unfriendly to the larger community, because people tend to think the park is only open to the upscale residents of adjacent Brooklyn Heights. Therefore, a great waterfront should not be dominated by residential development, because a high concentration of residential development undermines the diversity of waterfront use by creating pressure to prevent nighttime activity from flourishing.
3) Integrate the waterfront to the city’s overall transportation system. Although the status of water traffic is supplanted by railways, automobiles and metros, it is still a good alternative of the often over-crowded landway. Therefore, Hangzhou’s step in opening up waterbus lines is a really good idea to revitalize the water traffic. Meanwhile, it is also helpful to build other public transportation lines and stops cross the waterway or at the waterfront. For example, the Paris metro system goes along and across the Seine, which brings people to the waterfront from all over the city.
4) Avoid building a uniform waterfront; different parts of the waterfront should have its own characteristics. The characteristic of different waterfront parts should relate to its existing assets and the context of neighborhood. This means that the waterfront in a certain region should strive to showcase the local identity. How to revitalize the waterfront relationship with the northern industrial district of Hangzhou can draw a lesson from the design and planning of Granville Island, Vancouver, Canada. Originally shaped for industrial use in 1913, the buildings on Granville Island deteriorated until a planning process for the island's redevelopment in the 1970s, where many vestiges of the industrial past were still retained, but transformed into an inviting public activity space by welcoming the move in of art community. Actually the idea of transforming former industrial buildings into art community is no longer novel, and Hangzhou is already taking this step. The former factory building of Hangzhou Silk Company now becomes the studio space for artists and musicians. All that we need to do is to further increase the popularity of the place to create a bigger influence in the city of Hangzhou.
5) Creating destinations or point of attractions. The linear shape of canals and rivers is very likely to make the waterfront become a prosaic pathway to a destination somewhere else. In order to avoid this, the waterfront itself should become a destination, a centerpiece for programming and activities. PPS (Project for Public Spaces), a New York based nonprofit organization dedicated to creating successful public places for communities calls the process of creating ten (or several) great destinations along a waterfront the "Power of Ten." This focus on destinations, rather than "open space" or parks, enables genuine community-led stakeholders such as business, residences and institutions to take root.
6) Balance Environmental Benefits with Human Needs. While a wide variety of social uses can flourish on a waterfront, successful destinations usually embrace their natural surroundings by creating a close connection between human and natural needs. This requires a tight work with marine biologists and environmentalists in planning of what to plant along shorelines, devising a method to improve water quality and revive fish and wildlife habitat. Boardwalks, waterside playgrounds and picnic areas can be incorporated into the shoreline design without sacrificing environmental and social benefits.
7) Last but not least, a good preservation by both the government and the public.

To sum up, we can see that the problem of how to build a better waterfront is confined by the existing landscape and urban layout, but a successful planning of waterfront can also shape the existing environment. Although the traditional waterborne life pattern is no longer applicable to the change in technology and modern lifestyle, there’s still potential to maximize the use of traditional waterways, and I believe this everlasting changing and adaptation just shows what we mean by sustainability.

Riverfront Planning: Planning of the Grand Seine, Paris

The City of Hangzhou has learned a lot from the riverfront planning of the Seine, Paris. During my research, I found this amazing link to a 360 degree panaroma of the views around the Seine River:
http://www.world-heritage-tour.org/europe/france/paris/map.html
(go into the website and click on the specific images on the map to see lager 360 panaroma)

Great Waterfronts of the World

Resources: Project For Public Spaces (PPS)
The following is an article I found during my research on waterfront planning, which listed several most successful waterfronts in the world.

A truly great urban waterfront is hard to come by. The PPS staff has examined more than 200 urban waterfronts around the world--cities on the sea (Hong Kong, Vancouver, Miami, Athens), rivertowns (London, Paris, Buenos Aires, Detroit), and sturdy lakefront burgs (Milwaukee, Chicago, Cleveland, Zurich). It is exceedingly rare to find a waterfront that succeeds as a whole, although there are promising elements in almost all of them. So when we sat down to share our notes about which waterfronts deserve to be called the world's best, it only made sense to create two categories. The first, "Waterfront Cities," considers the entire waterfront--how well it connects by foot to the rest of the city and sustains a variety of public activities in multiple areas. The second category, "Waterfront Places," looks separately at individual destinations along the water. When you experience these extraordinary public spaces, you realize how much more would be possible with a coordinated strategy to make the whole waterfront a place for people.

Best Waterfront Cities

These six cities offer a taste of what's possible. They vigorously incorporate the waterfront into the broader life of the community, using it to showcase their best assets. By exploring the water’s edge you can get a sense of the whole city

1. Stockholm, Sweden

As a city of islands, the waterfront here really is the heart of town and has quietly adapted over time as Stockholm evolves, providing many new and different ways for people to use it. With few traffic-heavy roads along the water, walking and bicycling become great pleasures, enabling people to discover an array of attractions all along the city’s shoreline. What really sets Stockholm apart are the promenades and esplanades that naturally draw people to public destinations on the water, such as the outstanding City Hall (where the Nobel Prizes are awarded) or the wonderful Kungstradgarden (King's Garden). Then, when you are ready to move away from the water, another pedestrian-oriented path will appear, ready to whisk you off to a destination elsewhere in the city.

2. Venice, Italy

Amsterdam may be called the Venice of the North and San Antonio the Venice of the Western Hemisphere, but the real Venice is one-of-a-kind. The quintessential waterfront city, Venice's famous canals make the streetscape into a seascape -- the whole life of the city revolves around waterways. In most cities, roadways are the most problematic aspect of the urban landscape; in Venice, the 'roadways' are the most beautiful part. Indeed, getting lost on the footpaths of Venice is the best way to experience the city. In such a picturesque setting, where every scene leaves a lasting imprint in your memory, the challenge is to identify which ingredients can be of use to more contemporary urban environments (see How to Turn a Waterfront Around for lessons drawn from Venice and other great waterfronts).

3. Helsinki, Finland

Located on the tip of a peninsula jutting into the Baltic Sea, Helsinki's compact downtown is almost entirely on the waterfront. In addition to its role as a regional transit center for ferries, tourist boats, and ocean liners, the waterfront serves as a popular gathering spot with markets, parks, and an esplanade. A bike ride along its safe and tranquil paths takes you past numerous neighborhoods centered around small public spaces. These intimate community places are complemented by main destinations of a grander scale, also along the water. The best of these is the central waterfront (which tops our list of waterfront destinations, below). In a sense, all "roads" (including waterways) lead to this focal point. People can intuitively follow an intricate network of small streets and promenades to arrive there, or they can simply follow the water.

4. San Sebastian, Spain

Though it lacks the media buzz of its Basque country neighbor, Bilbao, San Sebastián offers, in fact, the superior waterfront. Hugging the rim of the Bay of Biscay, its beautiful promenade follows the arcing coast from one end of the city to the other. Dotted with lively public spaces that connect to an ancient street layout well-suited to pedestrian use, this waterfront feels like the center of the city.

5. Sydney, Australia

One of the most visually stunning bays in the world, Sydney Harbor is also an amazing place to stroll, take a boat ride or just sit a spell. Locations like Circular Quay, The Rocks, and the Botanical Garden fit well with the harbor itself to create a unique waterfront atmosphere. As in Stockholm, Sydney’s waterfront destinations are best accessed by ferry. When people can get around via the water, they are apt to hang around much longer and do more things on the waterfront. The upshot is a constant hum of people having fun at a huge variety of activities, which could easily occupy someone for days on end.

6. Hamburg, Germany

Hamburg is one of Europe's largest ports, home to an industrial waterfront located on an estuary where the Elbe flows into the North Sea. Despite its sometimes gritty character, the waterfront is accessible to people through a scenic promenade linking the shore to the downtown. Hamburg stands as an excellent example of how cities with working waterfronts can still create active public places without interfering with economic activity.

Best Waterfront Places

The following spots are the best of the best of waterfront public spaces. To visit any of them leads to the inevitable question: Why aren't there more places like this? Every city needs places on its waterfront with the qualities and sheer appeal of these destinations.

1. Market Square and Esplanade, Helsinki, Finland

Helsinki's top waterfront draw combines an indoor market hall with a large public plaza which is itself home to an open air market. Easily accessible by foot, tram, or ferry, its location in the center of bay enhances the sense of destination. There are no major roads and hardly any cars to be found, creating an ideal setting for human-scaled buildings and small parks, where anyone can sit down and look out over the scene. The boats coming and going complement the market bustle, making for a public space that approaches perfection.

As PPS likes say about all great squares, this spot reaches out like an octopus, drawing people toward it—both from the city streets and from the waterborne routes of the bay. The most remarkable "tentacle" is the esplanade that leads here from the heart of the city. Walking down to the shore on this path is a finely paced, tantalizing journey--a veritable study in how to take advantage of a waterfront setting by building anticipation and heightening the senses on the route there.

2. Paris Plage, Paris, France

For one month every summer, the Georges Pompidou Expressway along Paris's Right Bank transforms into a pedestrian refuge replete with a sandy beach. A dazzling array of attractions vie for your attention—from activities like dance lessons, climbing walls, games, and swimming (in floating pools, not the Seine), to amenities like beach chairs, cafes, misting fountains, and shady palm trees. Its enormous popularity can be traced to strong management and innovative programming, which keep the place humming well into the night with shows and performances. Though financed in part by corporate sponsors, the acknowledgments are appropriately modest. There are no outrageous logos on display, and the experience never feels overwhelmed by commercialism. Paris Plage is a truly public space of tremendous benefit to everyone.

3. Nyhavn and Kongens Nytorv Square, Copenhagen, Denmark

These two spaces have a symbiotic relationship, with the large, oval-shaped Kongens Nytorv Square serving as the gateway to Nyhavn, Copenhagen's top waterfront district. Nyhavn makes a compelling promenade, packed with restaurants overlooking a small canal that harbors classic old ships, that naturally leads you right into the heart of the city. The square has recently been improved with more active management; and now hosts public events and programs that draw people to the area. Both places also exemplify the octopus effect, with many streets emanating out toward other destinations in the city.

4. Granville Island, Vancouver, British Columbia

Rising from the husks of old factories and workyards, Granville Island offers a cornucopia of markets, play areas, and cultural activities, all tucked into a stunning waterfront setting. It has marvelously succeeded not by adhering to a master plan or pursuing a themepark-like design, but by evolving organically along with local institutions, businesses and public destinations. Today it is a top draw for tourists as well as a beloved community place for the burgeoning population of high-rise dwellers in downtown Vancouver. A lesson in how great places can be created under any conditions with minimal expense.

5. Venice Beach, Los Angeles, California

This wonderful promenade and beach symbolizes the very definition of eccentricity. In what might aptly be termed a human circus, Venice Beach provides a public stage for artists, seniors, sunbathers, basketball players, religious proselytizers, and of course, half-naked muscle-bound exhibitionists. Oh, and don't forget the street markets, which add a whole other dimension of social interaction. It's enough to put an ear-to-ear grin on your face and make you thank the world for such interesting people--and interesting places.

6. Riverwalk, San Antonio, Texas

Yes, Riverwalk is a tourist magnet, but don't let that fool you. San Antonians come here in droves too. Most impressive is that people choose to come to Riverwalk all year round, even in the oppressive heat and mugginess of a Texas summer. For one thing, the water and shade cool things down--an important quality of waterfronts everywhere that we often overlook. And besides, why worry about the heat when you are surrounded by such a beautiful setting and such fascinating crowds?

7. People's Park at Islands Brygge, Copenhagen, Denmark

The charm of People's Park lies in its simple authenticity. It has grown organically as new activities requested by the public, such as boating, a floating pool, and community meeting facilities, have been gradually added to what used to be a very plain site. It is so successful that six more are going to be developed in the near future. Copenhagen should make it a priority to site these new parks next to important civic buildings along the water, such as the Library and the new Opera House, that could showcase themselves to the public to far greater effect if given the opportunity.

8. Main Beach Park, Laguna Beach, California

Laguna Beach offers an inspiring example of how to link a downtown to the water, even when a major road--in this case the Pacific Coast Highway--stands in the way. Its Main Beach Park is easily accessible on foot from downtown because the highway has been traffic calmed with landscaped medians. The park itself draws thousands of people every day, with a boardwalk that seamlessly weaves together basketball and volleyball courts, play structures, a recreation center with lawn bowling, and several open grassy areas for games and picnicking. Together with artist-designed benches and plentiful public art, the park's activity creates a unique fusion of recreation and culture.

9. Ribeira District, Porto, Portugal

Perhaps the best of many great waterfronts destinations of Portuguese origin around the world, the Ribeira District is simple and compact yet supports a wide variety of activity. Set in an historic district, much of the public area has been redesigned with contemporary materials and amenities. The new design features are very attractive, functional, and in no way ostentatious, serving as a sort of flexible platform for activities and supporting a range of gathering options for groups. Children play, tourists drink port in cafes, elderly friends talk and stroll. Automobiles pass through on a narrow channel with a low curb, so that drivers move through the space with less priority than pedestrians.

10. Aker Brygge Harborfront, Oslo, Norway

Formerly a shipbuilding area, Aker Brygge is now a vibrant and densely packed new district. Its public promenade is one of the best-used public spaces anywhere, an area for strolling that has become the focal point of the harbor and the entire city of Oslo. Tourists and locals alike enjoy the cafés, playgrounds, sittable steps, engaging public art, floating restaurants, and small fishing boats that sell their catch at the dock.

11. City Hall, Stockholm, Sweden

Stockholm City Hall is proof that an iconic building doesn't have to detract from the places around it. Located by one of the busiest sections of the city's waterfront, its grassy plaza, courtyards and interior public spaces welcome everyone who set foot there.

12. Coney Island and Brighton Beach, Brooklyn, New York

Brooklyn’s southern shoreline is home to the best stretch of waterfront in New York. Coney Island remains a one-of-a-kind destination. The boardwalk and amusements are jammed with people during the summer months, while on Surf Avenue, beloved attractions like the Cyclone roller coaster and Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs operate cheek-by-jowl with small food vendors and flea markets. Brighton Beach, meanwhile, feels like a different world from the carnival atmosphere of its famous neighbor. Russian cafés serve customers on the boardwalk and locals of all ages engage in animated conversation while enjoying the sea breeze. Both places share a special quality: They are public spaces where spontaneity flourishes. With so much to choose from, it's not necessary to go there with a plan.

The Water System Planning of the Buffalo-Shaped Hong Village

Hong Village is one of the Huizhou villages with the most representative residential architectures and landscape planning. Besides all the shared features of traditional Huizhou architecture, Hong Village distinguished itself among its neighbors by its unique buffalo-shaped village and water system planning. Its water system planning took advantage of its hilly landscape, and combined the existing waterway with the man-excavated ponds and waterways. This smartly planned water system has been providing every household in the village clean, fresh running water since 500 years ago, a time long before the modern tap water system was invented. Due to its unique water system planning, Hong Village was enlisted as the UNESCO World Heritage in 2000.

The village’s history can date back to as early as 1190 A.D. It was a family village owned by the Wang family. Originally, the only waterway near the village was the XiXi River, which ran from the northwest side of the village to the southeast. The direction of watercourse changed greatly at around 1276 due to a huge mountain flood. This mountain flood caused the river flows from the northwest to the south, which is also the direction today. In the 15th century, the Wang family’s social and economical status remarkably rose due to their success in business. As a result, the family started to put more attention on the fengshui of their family village because they believe that an auspicious planning can bring good luck to the family. They hired the most famous fengshui planner at the time to reshape their village. The fengshui planner came up with a comprehensive plan which dealt with the issues of the using water, drainage system, fireproof methods and irrigation.

What is more interesting, the village formed a crounching buffalo-like shape with the mountain and river around it. The Mount Leigang at the north side of the village is the head of the buffalo; the trees on the mountain are the horns of the buffalo; the dam controlling the water volume from the mountain is the mouth of the buffalo; hundreds of meandering streams are the intestines of the buffalo; the man-excavated Moon Pond at the center of the village is the stomach of the buffalo; the South Lake is the belly of the buffalo, since all waters finally converge to there; four bridges across the XiXi River are like the legs of the crouching buffalo. Overall, the Hong village is just like a relaxing buffalo crouching in the mid of the verdant mountain of Huizhou. The fengshui planner intentionally created this resemblance based on certain ecological, cultural implication. Buffalo is the major farming animal in Hong Village. The loyal, hard-working qualities of buffalo are what the Wang family valued and hope their offspring could pass down. Meanwhile, the villagers thought buffalo symbolized harvest and wealth, and they believed that by building their own village in this shape, it can bring them good luck. Despite the superstitious belief, building the village into a buffalo shape do has some ecological implications. Buffalos are famous for their unique digestive system, in which foods are fully digested through two stomach’s rumination. The Moon Pond and the South Lake can be viewed as the first and the second stomachs of the buffalo, where waters coming from hundreds of “intestines” (internal streams) were purified and precipitated first by the Moon Pond and then converge to the South Lake. Although not totally conform to a actual cow digestive system, the planning of Hong Village can be seen as one of the early exploration on bionics.

The existing landscape of the village was high at the north and low in the south. The planner took advantage of the elevation drop and used it to enhance the velocity of waterflow in the man-made streams in the villages. The average velocity of waterflow was as high as 21.6 meters per minute; this high velocity ensured the freshness and cleanness of the stream water. At the foot of the northern mountain, the fengshui planner designed several flood diversion channel, which can channel the mountain flood smoothly to the village. The most remarkable part of the Hong Village water system is its internal man-made water system. This system consists of a half-moon shaped Moon Pond at the center of the village and hundreds of winding streams that go alone every single streets and alleys of the village. These small streams measure 1260 m in total, 700m out of which are relatively wider streams and 500m out of which are the narrower streams. The wider streams are along the main streets of the village and therefore the water flows more rapidly in them, while the narrower streams are located in minor alleys and the water flows slower. The wider streams are seen as the large intestine of the buffalo while the narrower streams are the small intestine. Other components of the internal man-made water system are 8 wells and 22 fish ponds scattered in different residences. They connect the water system with underground water, which provides another source of water to the village. The underground water can also compensate for the river and stream water when they are dry. At the northwest of the village where the Yangzhan River and XiXi River meet, the planner designed a stone dame to separate the internal water system with the external, which can control the volume of water and ensure the smooth flow of the internal system even at the time when the external rivers has high volumes of water.

There were also many smartly planned gadgets in the waterway that maintain the cleanness and freshness of the water system. There were several water outlets at the south side of the South Lake. These outlets can channel water to the farmland in the south of the village to serve as irrigation water. Every internal stream has a wooden filter at the turns of the stream way that can block the trash in the river and prevent children from falling along the stream. Furthermore, the whole internal water system can be totally drained to clean the watercourse regularly. To drain the whole system actually doesn’t need to use any modern pump at all. All that need to do is to closed the dam at the northwest of the village and open the outlets in the south river. In this way the water is naturally drained up because the source is blocked and water converges to the South Lake and XiXi Lake following the gravity.

The village’s custom and water usage rules also played an important role in maintaining the cleanness of the water. There were unwritten rules among the villagers regarding fetching water, using water and disposing water. For example, the water before 8am can only be used for drinking because it is the cleanest water of the day after a night’s precipitation. After 8am, water is allowed to use for laundry and vegetable washing. Water is usually reused and recycled in this process: it is first used for rice and vegetable washing, and then used for watering plants and feeding stock, and then the remaining water goes to the notch in the skywell where it is filtered and transported to the outside water system. Dirty water is not allowed to be disposed to the stream since it requires longer time to filter and purify them. Instead, the villagers disposed dirty water to some clearings and let the soil to filter the water, and then finally became part of the underground water system. Furthermore, the Wang family values the preservation of trees a lot. Trees on Mount Leigang are not allowed to cut at all, and if there were people in the family were found cutting a tree, they will be expelled from family permanently.

I am deeply amazed by the cleverness of people in the 500 years ago after looking into the mechanism of Hong Village’s water system. I am so impressed by how they carefully studied the nature and came up with a series of methods that took the most advantage out of the existing environment without going against the rules and harmony of nature. I guess people in 500 years ago did this partly because they have no other choice—they didn’t have too much technology, and nature is all that they could rely on. They have the strong awareness of taking care of nature because they know if they didn’t do that they cannot live long. Contrary to that, the industrialization made us more and more neglect nature since we believe that technology can achieve anything. It may be no exaggeration to say that modernity made us lazier and more reliant to technology in some ways; we tend to solve a problem by turning to the machines for help without even thinking about if there’s easier natural way. By doing that, we overlooked the original meaning of technology, which is to simplify question rather than complicate it.
However, although the water system and living pattern in Hong Village is highly environmentally friendly, we still could not totally copy and apply it to our current design problems, because many mechanisms may not be applicable to our fast-paced, highly-efficient modern life. Therefore, I guess one inner question of sustainability we should look into today is how to avoid becoming too reliant on technology when we can save energy and do it by nature, while still ensure, or even improve the quality of our life. I believe the answer to this question lies in a better and deeper und

Huizhou Vernacular Residences: Analysis Diagrams

(click images to enlarge)
Plan and Section of Cheng Zhi Tang (Inherit Ambition Hall)

Huizhou Vernacular Residences

Local Environment
Huizhou is located in the sinuous mountain area of southeast China. The climate in this area has a big temperature difference in winter and summer, and the average humidity is very high throughout the year. The villages in Huizhou usually are situated with their backs and sides embraced by overlapping ranges of verdant mountains and their front facing east towards meandering streams. This setting is considered auspicious according to fengshui, for that this topographic configuration shelters the village from the cold winter winds blowing from the northwest and also facilitates good drainage, while providing an orderly arrangement allows individual dwellings to access to fresh air and warmth of the winter sun.

Social and Historical Background
Since Ming dynasty, Huizhou has been famous for its merchants. They are shrewd, smart and hard-working people, amassing profit from trade and pawnshops. Due to the limitations of the transportation and lack of arable land in their hometown area, Huizhou merchants usually led a sojourning life by doing business in the wealthy cities of the fertile lower Yangtze valley. Always far away from home, Huizhou merchants came to appreciate fine homes, and invest lots of money on refining their ideal home environment. Their life experience in the outside world enabled them to bring cosmopolitan values and patterns back to their tranquil rural villages where they build house as their own retirement sanctuaries. Huizhou merchants especially value the importance of education and respect to ancestors. As a result, the best locations in a village were usually given to schools and ancestor’s hall.

Major Features of Huizhou Residences

High perimeter walls
Limited by the rugged local terrain, Huizhou residences are usually in multistoried compact forms. Buildings are completely enveloped by high fortress-like outer walls. These brick perimeter walls are coated with white plaster and usually does not have any windows or opening to the interior building space except for a highly decorated symmetric front entrance. The high perimeter walls disguise the scale and magnificence of the dwellings inside. Therefore, when you look at a Huizhou residence from outside, it just looks like a big white box full of mystery and the unknown. The outer walls are designed in this way in order to provide security and privacy of the family members—women, children and the elderly—who were left alone by their sojourning husbands and elder brothers.

The large faceless perimeter walls are capped with stepped gables called “horse head walls”, because the rhythmic zig-zag shape of the stepped gables looks like the head of a horse. Horse head walls are stepped at different elevations and serve as a fireproof defensive function that protects the massive load-bearing timber frameworks.
The stepped silhouette of dark horse head gables and the crisp whiteness of the perimeter walls add simplicity, quietness and solemnity to the Huizhou residences. They are also the signature features of Huizhou architecture.



Tianjing (skywell)

The dwelling plan is punctuated with several tianjings or skywells, relatively narrow rectangular voids that open the interior to light, air and rain. Its ground is slightly recessed below the surrounding area, and the perimeter of the tianjing usually has a shallow indented catchment area for collecting rainwater as well as draining any surplus water outside the dwelling. These catchment areas are connected to a drainage system that leads to the larger exterior canal channel. The numbers of tianjings in a traditional Huizhou residence varies according to the size of the house, but the most common form of Huizhou residences has two tianjings—a front tianjing and rear tianjing.

Tianjings have both architectural and social significance. Architecturally, tianjings are the centers of each of their dominated area. The front tianjing and rear tianjing respectively represent the center of the front part and the back part of the house. A big spacious hall is usually facing the tianjing, and this hall has the most important role in the overall building. It is sometimes the main living room, the dining room or the ancestors’ hall where an altar and the portraits of ancestors are displayed. Other rooms are arranged around tianjings according to the order of their importance. The elder people’s bedrooms are usually placed on the second floor above the central hall, facing the tianjing, while the younger people’s bedroom and the guest rooms are placed at the sides of the central bedrooms. For other less important spaces such as kitchen, bathroom, barn house and storage room, there is a single story utility structure adjacent to the main building. This one story addition part has its own external side entrance connecting to the exterior. It is designed so because in traditional Chinese families, servants were usually not allowed to enter the building from the main entrance.

In the densely compact Huizhou residences, tianjings are the only place in the building that one can feel the outside changes in the nature. A small rectangular pool or large water vats are usually placed in the center of the tianjing. They served as rainwater collectors for domestic use as well as reservoirs in case of fire. The space tianjing creates is somewhat like the central courtyard garden in the four-fided courtyard residences in Beijing. However, tianjing is different from a central courtyard garden in that, its ground is typically paved with inlaid dressed stone while courtyard gardens have soil on the ground which can directly plant plants. However, even without soil and as many plants as the garden in Beijing residences, tianjing still creats an elegant microcosm of nature with potted plants and fishes in the pools. Compared with the courtyard gardens in Beijing courtyard residences, tianjing creates a beauty that is more subtle, controlled and elegant, which is somewhat like the concept of Japanese zen garden.

In a larger residence there may have as many as nine tianjings, such as the case in the most famous Huizhou residence, Chen Zhi Tang (Hall of Inheriting Ambition). Besides the central tianjings which serve as the same central layout purpose as in small scale residences, there are small tianjings scatter around the sides of the house. These small tianjings sometimes include a pool of water that is connected to the drainage system outside, and surrounding overhanging benches which provide an area for relaxation and contemplation. Small tianjing sometimes may simply be a square of clearing with nothing in it, or a small clearing area with a big potted plant. The different ways tianjing spaces are untilized reflect different personalities of this relative space .

On the third level, the roofs have the intersecting layers of clay tiles. Each of the four roof slopes surrounding the tianjing leads water into the tianjing where it falls to the ground, in the process affirming the local fengshui maxim “si shui gui tang” or “the four waters return to the hall.” Like a tall container of water, the house metaphorically express that wealth will accumulate in the residence and not be dissipated by flowing outward.
Tianjings are also activity hubs of the family. The front tianjing are sometimes used as large banquet and ceremony space, while the rear tianjing is a more private family gathering space where children played, woman worked, and old family members enjoy the warm sunlight.


Decoration
Stone, brick and wood carvings are three kinds of major decorations in Huizhou residences. Stone and brick carvings are typically seen in the entrance spandrels, partition walls and screens. Wood carvings can be found in the supporting beams of building. Since the buildings are all wooden structure, the richly carved wooden beams served dual functions of supporting and decoration. The contents of the carving usually include some Chinese traditional tales with auspicious meanings.

The partition door panels and windows are also skillfully crafted. They not only enhance the ornamentation of the building but also control the flow of air and light into the enclosed spaces. Also worth mentioning is that these intricately carved wooden doors can be removed in order to integrate the interior and exterior spaces, which enhances the versatility of the interior space.
The central corridor around the tianjing on the second floor is not directly exposed to the central opening space, but closed by carved lattice windows. This design provides multiple options to the residents in controlling the sunlight, wind and rain at a time when glass windows were very rare. Even in the winter time when the windows are totally closed in order to resist the cold, the small apertures in the windows can allow the exchange of fresh air and sunlight.