The Inheritance And Protection Of The Construction Process Of The Traditional Settlements

Traditional settlements are an indispensable and important part of theglorious architectural culture of China. However, against the backdrop of therapid economic development, modern civilization has exerted substantialbearings on the traditional settlements. Our cities are occupying increasinglylarger areas, leaving smaller space for the survival of traditional settlements. Asthe lack of reasonable protection, many traditional settlements are declining anddisappearing unknowingly. However, as the craftsmen are growing older, manyconstruction processes of the traditional settlements fail to be handed down fromthe past generation. Now we are confronted with the issues of inheriting andprotecting these settlements and their construction processes.Taking Ancient South Street that is located at Dingshu Village, Yixing City,Jiangsu Province as the research objective, this paper summarizes theconstruction process and detailed characteristics of the Ancient South Street bymeans of field investigation and questionnaires. Firstly, this paper expounds onthe influences of natural and social factors on the formation and development ofthe settlements on Ancient South Street. Secondly, it introduces the localconstruction materials, such as wood, brick, stone materials and grey tiles fromthe perspectives of the construction processes of the roof and masonry structureas well as the forms of the doors and windows; it concludes the forms andcategories of partial rafters and ridges on the basis of the analysis of the roofing;it conducts research on the masonry structures, particularly the brick walls andpartitions, and summarizes the forms and categories of the buttress head andpavement; it also investigates forms of the local doors and windows, theconstruction process of the local settlements as well as some of the folk culture,the distinctive purple clay culture in particular. Finally, according to the localcurrent conditions, it analyzes the difficulties and issues existing in the processof inheritance and protection and puts forward the correspondent protection methods so as to provide a reference for exploring more effective protectivemeasures.