Lingnan architecture is the umbrella term for the local architecture of Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan, and Jiangxi provinces in South China. Lingnan architecture, initially used for a specific school of painting that originated in the area in the second half of the 19th century, is the product of a transcultural, syncretic way of building, comprising local, vernacular architecture and influences from neighboring South Asian zones, some of them imported by overseas returnees from Singapore, Indonesia, etc. With the rise of research on Chinese architecture in the early 1930s with its center in Beijing, (?) the concept of the distinctive Lingnan architecture was also established in the south. Within the regional architecture of the Changsha area, the Pearl River area and Hakka culture can be distinguished by distinct architecture and unique features, while there are also considerable commonalities. Due to its geographical location near the sea, the Pearl River Delta, and ports like Hong Kong, the area has been exposed to a century-long cultural and commercial exchange. For a long time the port of Guangzhou was not only the busiest (silk) port of the Chinese empire, it was also the only one allowed to trade with the West. As Lu Yuanding claims, these interactions are embodied in more than just building styles, but also in overall culture and ways of thinking.
Likewise, traditional vernacular architecture of the area responded to the hot and humid subtropical climate in many ways, such as with large porches and archways, natural cross ventilation systems with special perforated bricks and roof structures to let air move through the building, and mobile shading systems of bamboo wicker.
When architect Hsia Changshi developed his climate-adaptive architecture in the 1950s in Guangzhou, he related his own work to the vernacular housing in an ambiguous way. A co-founder of the Institute for Vernacular Architecture, he thoroughly studied the local houses and their climate-responsive systems and elements with his colleagues and students. Later, when developing his ideas about climate-adaptive architecture, he not only recognized the achievements of these typologies but also pointed at their antiquity and insufficiencies or even danger. For example, he believed that the bamboo screens posed a serious fire hazard and the traditional roof structures left too little space between the roof tiles to let sufficient air through. In contrast to his interest in the vernacular housing types, Hsia Changshi also compiled a book about the characteristics of high-culture Lingnan garden architecture, focusing on architectural features other than climate responsiveness like the spatial fluidity, use of materials, ornamentation, integration of buildings and landscape, and planting.(CL)
Sources:
Hsia, Changshi (1958): “Problems of Lowering the Temperature of Buildings in the Subtropical Zone.” In: Jianzhu Xuebao Issue 10/1958. 36-39
Hsia, Changshi/ Mo, Bozhi (1963): “Lingnan Gardens.” In: Jianzhu Xuebao, Issue 03/1963. 11-14.
Linortner, Christina (2011): Interview with Prof.Lu Yuanding Sen. and Prof. Lu Yuanding Jun. Guangzhou. 14t/10/2011.
Linortner, Christina (2011): Interview with Eduard Kögel, TU Berlin. 13/02/2012.
