Research On The Construction Techniques Of Shuikou In The Traditional Village Of Lanxi

“Shuikou,” as a classic example of the vernacular architectural site of Zhejiang and China in general,often contains the essence of an ancient village landscape as well as its cultural heritage.This article’s interest in Shuikou not only stems from its position as the first sightline when one enters a village,but more importantly because of its significance to the entire ecology of village inhabitation and its architectural structure.Monographs about “Shuikou " has not been produced in the current scholastic field.The research on Shuikou,to a large extent,stops short at discussions of its cultural and social role from a Fengshui perspective.In the field of architecture,“Shuikou" research mainly concentrates on its architectural history and protection of vernacular architecture and landscape.These studies largely treat “Shuikou " as one of various points of reference,and they mostly describe “Shuikou" as a phenomenon.There is little discussion of the specific formulations of “Shuikou " on a technological level.This current treatment of“Shuikou" —a place with unparalleled achievements in its techniques of scenery construction,undergirded by deep methodological thinking—is far from adequate.This paper focuses on the “Shuikou” in the traditional Lanxi village as a research subject.It combines multiple investigative methods such as field trips,interviews with the villagers about the concept of “Shuikou,” comparisons of documents,and analyzes the technological as well as the cultural aspect of its rich heritage.The author found that though many villages have similar designs to “Shuikou,”not all of them are genuinely “Shuikou.” This research first conducts an identification of genuinely“Shuikou” design through a study of the formative elements of each village’s “Shuikou.” It lays down certain parameters for the position,scale and range of Shuikou as a basis of later analysis.In the individual case studies of building techniques of Shuikou,this paper advances the concept of a “Shuikou environment” in order to differentiate our use of “Shuikou” as a specific architectural and environmental concept from its general use in popular discussions.This study also employs two basic concepts from contemporary architectural studies to further explicate our case: “built environment” and“imagined environment.” The former points to the tangible,materialized reality of the environment,while the latter refers to the intangible environment inhabited by people’s psychological and cultural imagination or thinking.Combined with case studies of existing instances of “Shuikou,” this paper systematically analyzes the functions and influences of these two environments on the constructive processes.It is proposed that the first step of construction is the selection of the optimal location,which is a choice motivated by “built environmnent.” On the other hand “imagined environment” is the psychological or cultural adjustments entailed by a less-than-ideal environment.This paper analyzes howculture shape the construction of Shuikou,and attempts to elevate the discussion to a broader theme of“how should architecture be done concretely.”This paper further proposes that,as the core of village landscape,“Shuikou” not only plays a vital role in shaping the rural landscape,but also serves as the basic unit and connecting tissue between multiple villages.Based on its connecting function,“Shuikou” extends to an entire village system that is constituted by a continuous,multi-layered and composite landscape structure.This is especially manifest in the formation of regional landscape which constitutes an important element of the regional landscape system.The so-called landscape structure that encompasses the entire rural area is indebted to the important role that “Shuikou” played as a connecting tissues in that region.And the “Shuikou” that is representative of village landscape is the prime example of the core values of vernacular landscape.