Customer Reviews

Ancient Chinese Architecture Series, Palace Architecture

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

As an architectural student interested in traditional Chinese architecture, it is very hard to find English sources that deal with this topic. Although, some books talk briefly about Chinese buildings, they never go into details. However, this book is very different. First of all, this book manly focuses on two palaces in China. The first one is the Forbidden City in Beijing; the other one is the one in Shenyang. The book started out with many photos to give readers a clear idea of the palaces. Than it explains the palaces in details. It not only talks about the materials and forms of the buildings, but also explain the concept behind the palace, for example, the Ying / Yang and Five Element ideas. The point that I like the most about this book is that there are many plans and sections of the buildings within the palaces. There are many good elements to this book, but I still only give it a 4 stars rating. The reason behind it is that the book seems to jump from one location in a palace to another and there is no sequential logic behind the ordering of the pictures and text.