Research On The Development Of The Traditional Courtyard Houses In Yunnan

This thesis is a study on the development of the traditional courtyard houses in Yunnan. This kind of traditional building occupies an important position among Yunnan' s varied traditional buildings. Its development reflects the spread of the culture of the Han nationality in Yunnan and it is also a development of Yunnan' s indigenous construction technology. The formulation of traditional buildings is a continuous selecting, combining and developing process with the accumulation of experience over a long period of time. Because of the changes in history and the differences of the environmen't, the traditional courtyard houses in Yunnan gradually develops into a lot of varieties. Despite the great deal of studies of Yunnan traditional courtyard houses, they just focus on the spatial part of the traditional building in a certain area and do not provide a comparison of traditional buildings of different areas and of different time. This thesis makes a study of the typical traditional buildings in areas of Yunnan from the perspective of historical development, centering on the development processes and the corresponding changes in different areas, on the contrast between the different types of traditional buildings and the analysis of the causes for the changes and differences. Then the paper concludes with the regular patterns and features of the development of traditional buildings and its implications for modern building design.The thesis is composed of six parts. The first chapter is the introduction, which presents the purpose, the significance and the scope of this paper and which gives an overall framework of the study on that basis. The second chapter illustrates the major development history of the traditional courtyard houses and makes a classification of them, with the emphasis on the natural andhistorical element in their formulation and the main types. Chapter three analyses the overall features of all kinds of the traditional courtyard houses in Yunnan, their regional characteristics, and the influencing elements related to the changes of the buildings, thus providing the background for the following case studies. Chapter four gives a detailed description of the typical courtyard houses in various areas of Yunnan. It then discusses the relationship between the spatial construction and features of styles and the causes for changes and talks about the key element influencing the styleof the regional traditional buildings. The fifth chapter expounds the current situation of the traditional courtyard houses and tries to findout its problems through the analysis of the causes for its unpopularity for the convenience of exploring the development of the traditional building in future. The sixth chapter puts forward the problems facing us in the development of traditional buildings, talks about the significance of their existence in the future and provides some new ideas on the learning from and innovation of the traditional building with patio in modern building design.The final part of the thesis makes a summary and forecast of this subject study.