Woven Arch Bridge: Histories of Constructional Thoughts 0367618230, 9780367618230
This book focuses on the woven arch bridge, an arch-shaped structure that is one of the most extraordinary timber buildi
405 85 40MB
English Pages 412 [413] Year 2020
Table of contents :
Cover
Half Title
Series Information
Title Page
Copyright Page
Epigraph
Table of contents
List of Figures
Introduction
0.1 55 BC, Gaul, in today’s Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany
0.2 1520s, Vicenza, Italy
0.3 1481, Milan, Italy
0.4 1032, Qinzhou, China
0.5 1857, Taishun, Zhejiang, China
0.6 1870s, Enshu, Japan
0.7 1937, Shouning, Fujian, China
0.8 1898, San Francisco, USA
0.9 1913, San Marino, California, USA
0.10 1955, Wuhan, Hubei, China
0.11 2002, Beijing, China
0.12 Fade-out to darkness – and then a title appears on the screen
Part I Woven arch bridges
1 From Caesar to Da Vinci: The woven structure’s Italian root
1.1 Glory to Caesar!
1.1.1 Caesar and his Rhine Bridge
1.1.2 From a legend to an issue of architecture study
1.1.2.1 The Rhine Bridge in Caesar’s legend
1.1.2.2 The first light from the architecture discipline
1.1.2.3 The first illustrator of the Rhine Bridge
1.1.2.4 Various Italian illustrations
1.1.3 Palladio’s Rhine Bridge
1.1.3.1 I quattro libri dell’architettura
1.1.3.2 I Commentarii di C. Giulio Cesare
1.1.3.3 Feasibility of Palladio’s restoration
1.2 Leonardo da Vinci, the genius mind
1.2.1 Leonardo da Vinci’s study on Caesar’s Rhine Bridge
1.2.2 The clamp bridge
1.2.3 The woven bridge
1.2.4 The woven vault
References
2 A full moon in another land: The Moon Bridge in the Japanese Garden of the Huntington Library
2.1 A Japanese landscape in California
2.1.1 The Marsh family and the earliest Japanese garden in California1
2.1.2 The Japanese Garden in the Huntington Library
2.1.3 San Francisco Drum Bridge
2.2 Toichiro Kawai, the Japanese carpenter
2.2.1 From Yokohama to Pasadena
2.2.2 Projects in the Huntington’s Japanese garden
2.2.3 Life in Pasadena
2.3 The Moon Bridge: the art of construction
2.3.1 Architectural features of the Moon Bridge
2.3.2 The bridge of perfection
2.3.3 Measurement system (yardstick)
2.4 The Moon Bridge: construction secrets
2.4.1 Construction of the wooden structure
2.4.2 Nails
2.4.3 Construction process of the curved beams
2.5 Reconstruction of an unwritten history
2.5.1 The Moon Bridge in the 1920s
2.5.2 The reconstruction of the bridge between 1949 and 1962
2.5.2.1 Arch structure
2.5.2.2 Handrail
2.5.3 Nobu T. Kawai’s account of the collapse of the bridge
2.5.4 A collapse in 1914? A thought experiment
2.6 Conclusions: curriculum vitae of the Huntington Moon Bridge
References
3 Searching for the Chinese wooden arch bridges
3.1 Discovery of the Chinese wooden arch bridges: from the Rainbow Bridge to the Min-Zhe area bridges
3.1.1 Discovery of the Rainbow Bridges
3.1.2 Historical background of the Rainbow Bridge
3.1.3 Discovery of wooden arch bridges in the MZ area
3.1.4 The traditional game of “chopstick-bridge”
3.1.5 Discovery of the building tradition of the MZ bridges
3.2 Rainbow Bridge re-observed through the lens of the MZ bridges
3.2.1 Tang’s change of mind with regard to the Rainbow Bridge
3.2.2 Reconstruction of the Rainbow Bridge in the 1950s and the 1990s
3.2.2.1 Examination on the structure form
3.2.2.2 Examination on the construction method
a Hanyang Bridge (Project 1958; Report 1986)
b MZ Bridge (Hypothetical Narration 1986)
c Jinze Rainbow Bridge (Project 1998; Report 2010)
3.2.3 Tang’s typology of the wooden arch bridges
3.3 The origin of the MZ bridges
3.3.1 Tang Huancheng’s theory: surviving technique for the “lost” Rainbow Bridge
3.3.2 Zhao Chen’s theory: local origin of MZ bridges
3.3.3 Evaluation of both theories
3.4 Wooden arch bridges: the dedication of two generations of Chinese scholars
References
Part II Woven arch bridges in Southeast China
Introduction to Part II
II.1 Rules of terminology and abbreviation of the structural members
II.2 General building process of a typical MZ bridge
II.3 Basic information of the research
4 Building a woven arch bridge: Local knowledge
4.1 Organization and preparation
4.1.1 The role of the project director
4.1.2 The role of the master carpenter
4.1.3 Selection of the bridge location
4.2 Material and tools
4.2.1 Selection of wood species
4.2.1.1 Different species of “Shanmu”
4.2.1.2 Crossbeams/harder wood
4.2.2 Wood processing
4.2.2.1 Time of felling
4.2.2.2 Dry wood vs. wet wood
4.2.2.3 Debarking
4.2.2.4 Removing the gnarls
4.2.2.5 The direction of the wood
4.2.3 Woodworking tools
4.2.3.1 Tools for measuring and lofting
4.2.3.1.1 The “Lu Ban ruler” (carpenter’s square)
4.2.3.1.2 Scale-staff
4.2.3.1.3 Templates
4.2.3.2 Tools for marking and drawing
4.2.3.3 Tools for levelling
4.2.3.4 Tools and devices for wood processing
4.3 Design of the woven arch and the production of its building members
4.3.1 Basic principles
4.3.2 Traditional design method: longitudinal-section-based design
4.3.2.1 The traditional design plan
4.3.2.2 First arch system: the basic length and the slope
4.3.2.3 The proportion of the second arch system
4.3.2.4 Sizes and angles relating to crossbeams
4.3.3 Bridge width
4.3.4 A closer look at the LH-Beams
4.3.5 The art of utilizing naturally-grown wood
4.4 Processing the wooden arch elements
4.4.1 Longitudinal beams
4.4.1.1 Slanted beams of the first arch system (S-Beams[1])
4.4.1.2 Horizontal beams of the first arch system (H-Beams[1])
4.4.1.3 Slanted beams of the second arch system (L- and U-S-Beam[2])
4.4.1.4 Horizontal beams of the second arch system (H-Beams[2]) and lateral horizontal beams (LH-Beams)
4.4.2 Crossbeams
4.4.3 Other struts
4.5 Erection of the wooden arch
4.5.1 Rituals
4.5.1.1 Erection of the “wooden horse”
4.5.1.2 Marking the scale-staff
4.5.1.3 Positioning the first building element
4.5.1.4 Closing the first system
4.5.1.5 Felling the tree for the building element “dong”
4.5.1.6 Topping out, or the dong-festival
4.5.2 Abutment
4.5.3 Construction of the under-deck structure
4.5.3.1 Scaffolding
4.5.3.1.1 Platform-scaffolding
4.5.3.1.2 Swing-frame-scaffolding
4.5.3.2 First arch system – the three-sided arch
4.5.3.2.1 Construction using the platform-scaffolding
4.5.3.2.2 Construction using the swing-frame-scaffolding
4.5.3.3 Commander-pillars
4.5.3.4 Second arch system – the five-sided arch
4.5.3.4.1 General process of building the five-sided arch
4.5.3.4.2 The choudu / crossbeam-ramming step
4.5.3.5 The exterior LH-Beams or the edge-beams
4.5.3.6 X-shaped struts
4.5.3.7 Lateral horizontal beams (LH-Beams)
4.5.3.8 “Frog-leg structure”
4.5.4 Erection of the corridor
4.6 Constructional perspective of the bridge carpenters
4.6.1 Structural understanding of the bridge carpenters
4.6.1.1 Does the structure of the MZ bridge constitute an arch?
4.6.1.2 Relationship between the first and the second arch
4.6.1.3 The choudu or“crossbeam-ramming”
4.6.1.4 Relationship between the U- and L-S-Beams[2]
4.6.1.5 Wu Fuyong’s method
4.6.1.6 Beam shoulder and structural stability
4.6.1.7 The function of the C-Beams[1]
4.6.2 Selection of joint type
4.6.2.1 Joints on the F-Beams[2]
4.6.2.2 Lower end (foot) of the weaving-beams (U-S-Beams[2])
4.6.2.3 Beam head (upper end) of the U-S-Beams[2]
4.7 A short summary of the mechanical features of the MZ bridges
References
5 The Rulong Bridge: A detective story
5.1 The dragon-like bridge
5.2 The measured drawings
5.3 Solving the jigsaw puzzle
5.3.1 Initial clues
5.3.2 Unexpected evidence and the construction method
5.3.3 Completing the causal chain
5.4 Conclusions
6 Technique and craftsmen: Pedigree of the bridge carpenters and the diffusions of the technique
6.1 Our sources of information about the bridge carpenter families
6.2 Stories of the bridge carpenter families
6.2.1 Xian’gong Bridge – the beginnings of the Xiajian Masters
6.2.1.1 Zhang Xin-You
6.2.1.2 Who is Li Xiu-Yi?
6.2.1.3 The rise and decline of the Zhang family’s bridge-building career
6.2.2 Bridges in Xiaodong Village: from Xiajian to Kengdi Masters
6.2.2.1 The Xiajian He families
6.2.2.2 The first known bridge work of the Kengdi Masters
6.2.3 Xuezhai Bridge: the failure and success of the Kengdi Masters
6.2.3.1 Xu Yuan-Liang
6.2.3.2 Wu Guang-Qian
6.2.4 Yangmeizhou Bridge – an encounter between the two bridge-building groups
6.2.5 The bridge carpenter families: how did the carpenters form groups?
6.3 Construction features and technical evolution
6.3.1 Distinctive features of bridge pedigree
6.3.2 Choudu: a sign of the family-tradition bridge carpenters
6.3.2.1 Piercing form
6.3.2.2 Matching form
6.3.2.3 Interlacing form
6.3.3 The evolution of choudu in the Zhang Family of the Xiajian Masters
6.3.4 Bridges with different features
6.4 Marginal variant: atypical MZ bridges
6.4.1 “3+3”-format bridges as a deviation from “3+5”-format bridges
6.4.2 “3+2” (“3+X”) bridges: the most basic woven arch form
6.4.3 “3+2” bridges as an unfavourable deviation from the “3+3” bridges
6.4.4 “3+4” bridges as a special form of MZ bridge
6.4.5 “Chopstick-bridges” as a rudimental form
6.5 Technique inheritance and dissemination
6.5.1 Bridge-building technology and carpenter-group composition
6.5.2 Technique, families, and locality: rethinking the Xiajian and Kengdi Masters
6.5.3 Tracing the source of the technology
References
Part III Conclusion
7 Rethinking the histories of woven arch bridges
7.1 Universal uniqueness
7.2 Typology of the woven arch structures
7.2.1 Type A. Enlarged chopstick-bridge
7.2.1.1 A “rural” Rainbow Bridge
7.2.1.2 The Garyu Bridge
7.2.1.3 The so-called “Caucasian Bridge”
7.2.2 Type B. Handshake bridges: improved cantilever bridges
7.2.3 Type C. Norwegian clamped bridge: reinforced strut bridges
7.2.4 Type D. MZ bridges: improved strut bridges
7.3 From idea to technique
7.3.1 Origins of the woven arch structures
7.3.1.1 To strengthen the joints
7.3.1.2 A playful route to the structural design
7.3.2 The gap between idea and technique
7.3.3 The success of the MZ bridges
7.4 Structural thoughts: dealing with the challenge of the span in different cultures
7.4.1 Ambiguity in terms of the structural science
7.4.1.1 Compared to an arch
7.4.1.2 Compared to a truss
7.4.2 The truss tradition in western building cultures
7.4.3 Absence of the truss structure in the East Asian building cultures
7.4.4 Joint system
7.5 Seed, soil, growing environment
7.5.1 The seed
7.5.2 The soil
7.5.3 Growing environment
References
Afterword
Acknowledgements
List of referred historical MZ bridges
Index
