Chien, Auo, Shih : evolution of space perception and space making in China

Abstract

The question of "what is the essence of Chinese architecture" has been puzzling Westerners as well as Chinese since the incept i on of Traditional Chinese Architecture Studies five decades ago . This thesis attempts to answer the question by exploring some spatial concepts which have not been clearly documented before. Based on the exploration of those spatial concepts, a new historical perspective will be introduced to show succinctly how Chinese architecture evolved in the last 30 centuries. The theoretical assumptions guiding the thesis are: the emergence of spatial concepts is due to the fact of man-always-having-to-perceive-spatial-phenomena, the characteristics of spatial concepts are .determined by the relationship between man and phenomena , the relationship between man and phenomena may evolve, the evolution of spatial concepts makes up t he hi story of architecture.