Chinese Garden and Architecture Integration - Scale

A private Chinese garden was enclosed by the Chinese architectural structures, creating a limit to the outside. On the inside, there is no obvious boundary between the Chinese garden and the Chinese architecture; in other words, there is no limit between the Chinese garden space and the Chinese architectural space. The private Chinese garden is a part of architecture. Together the Chinese garden and the building constitute the entire Chinese architectural space. There is no Chinese garden without architecture, and there is no architecture without garden. Chinese architecture and its garden are dependent on each other. A Chinese is enclosed and defined by the walls, the pavilions, the covered walking galleries and other architectural features. Chinese architecture is laid out in group form. Instead of building a massive many story building, Chinese constructed a group of smaller sized, one or two story buildings that incorporate Chinese garden space to accommodate the various functional requirements. This design technique prevents the huge scale architecture from overpowering the small garden space. Furthermore, since the structures were arranged at ground level, they have more opportunities to directly contact the garden. Chinese architecture was not so impressive as that of a great edifice because it is low, small, and light gray in color. The feeling of the Chinese architectural space is a cumulative effect obtained through presenting alternately the architectural and garden spaces. In a word, the traditional architecture presented an process, not a vista.

Chinese architecture and Chinese garden are enclosed inside a limited space. In order to avoid the feeling of confinement, Chinese architecture presents a perimetric layout. Buildings are often arranged along the boundary of the site to conceal the boundary walls. In addition, this kind of layout prevents the architecture from separating the entire Chinese garden into several disconnected sections. Instead it creates a relatively more concentrated and larger garden area to match the scale of the architecture.

The two-story, large building is set in the remote corner of the Chinese garden. This placement not only avoids dwarfing the garden with building mass, but also maintains the sight continuity inside the Chinese garden and blocks out unpleasant sights and noises outside. Sometimes, two-story buildings were constructed with two level roofs to create a lighter appearance. This visual deception reduced the large building proportional related to other garden features and surrounding space. Another technique is to surround the large main buildings with many smaller buildings. The smaller buildings, galleries, side halls, and pavilions, were used as the transitional elements from large building to the garden features. Sometimes, when a large building was erected close to a small water surface, it was set back from the water with a terrace. Thus, the reflecting image of the main building will be proportionate to the scale of the pond. The terrace prevents the large reflection from dwarfing the small pond. As a result, the main buildings in the Chinese garden may look imposing but never overpowering.

Rock features dominated private Chinese gardens. Those rock structures and artificial mountains were half natural and half artificial. They were erected around the buildings to act as an intermediary transitions from the architecture to the pure natural features, like plants. Sometimes, rocks were incorporated into the wall of a building, and at the other times, a stone step in an artificial mountain will be the only path to ascend to the second story of a building. Through careful arrangement, the rock and the building can fit naturally together. When appropriately scaled, the gray color, and the rough texture of rock in the Chinese garden are an effective means of linking the architecture with the surrounding landscape. For this reason, the architecture should never appear too imposing inside the Chinese garden.

Proportional scale between buildings and landscape is one of the most effective ways of incorporating Chinese architecture with its environment.

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