General Comparative Analysis between Chinese and Western Architectural Cultures文化通览期末论文.doc

General Comparative Analysis between Chinese and Western Architectural Cultures It is universally acknowledged that architectural culture is an important part of a nations culture in history. It may reflect a nations achievements in various aspects such as the artistic achievements, the development level of a nation, and a nations civilization degree etc. Chinese traditional architecture has shown a great accomplishment in art and it has represented our countrys high achievement of architecture. With the development of international economy and the continuous strengthening of global communications, Chinese modern and contemporary architectures have been greatly influenced by Western architecture. And our traditional architecture is becoming more typical than the architecture in any other periods of our nation. Thus, it is full of comparability to have a contrast on Chinese traditional architecture and Western architecture. For one thing, solidity and utility are the common characteristics of Chinese architecture and Western architecture. There is no denying that solidity and utility are two basic guidelines of architecture. Since the original purpose of architecture building is for human habitation, all the other values of it such as ornamental value should be placed after solidity and utility. For another thing, to compare Chinese traditional architecture with Western architecture, the most essential distinction between them is the cultural differences. The cultural differences between our country and the Western countries lead to two kinds of totally different thinking patterns, which ultimately influence their different architectural styles. The following three points are the main distinctions between Chinese traditional architecture and Western architecture. The first distinction should be on the building materials. In ancient times, Chinese architects used wood as the main building materials while Western architects used masonries as their main materials. The primitive agriculture and traditional agriculture have taken dominant places for a long time in the past of our country, which are quite different from the Western traditional economic mode in the same period. The different choices of building materials may result from different economic modes and different concepts in two kinds of cultural environments. Secondly, the geomantic culture and the theory of the five natural elements- earth, water, fire, metal, and wood are very popular in Chinese traditional architecture while Western architects care much about aesthetic geometry in their architecture. To put it another way, Chinese traditional architecture seeks the beauty of nature, while Western architecture prefers to advocate artificial beauty. The main reasons for such kind of distinction are the different aesthetic standards and value concepts between Chinese people and Western people. Traditional Chinese people believe in the idea of nature-human integration. In our Chinese culture, we advocate that men should keep a harmonious relationship with nature. As for Western people, they advocate individualism which cares much about the individual. Thus the Western buildings tend to be detached patterns while most Chinese traditional buildings are aggregate patterns.Thirdly, the two different architectural styles are partly influenced by the different ruling ideologies. Chinese ancient people have been under the control of the deep-rooted feudal ideology for a long period while the Western people have been ruled by the relatively democratic ideas over the most periods. Set the traditional Beijing quadrangle as an example, the enclosed spatial patterns of the traditional quadrangles bring out Chinese traditional feudal ideas. On the contrary, the Western buildings tend to be open type spatial patterns, which convey their different cultural mentality from ours. In the final analysis, the causes for the distinctions between Chinese traditional architecture and Western architecture are manifold. The different social systems, different cultural mentalities, different ruling ideas, or even the different rel