Chinese architecture centers on an axial, modular layout of rectangular rooms and courtyards framed by a timber skeleton. The dougong bracket system allows deep eaves and ornamental expression. Decoration - polychrome painting, carving, and glazed tiles - signals status and protects wood. Variations across regions and building types (palaces, temples, courtyard houses) reflect climate, ritual use, and local crafts. The tradition influenced neighboring East Asian architectures and continues to live through conservation and ongoing practice.
Overview
Traditional Chinese architecture arranges rectangular rooms and courtyards into an ordered whole, using an axial layout and repeated modular units. The result emphasizes hierarchy and balance: the central axis and main hall convey the building's importance, while side wings and courts create secondary spaces.
Structure and Spatial Logic
A defining feature is the timber-frame system: vertical posts and horizontal beams form a skeleton that determines interior depth and span. Roofs sit on this frame and often overhang deeply. To support wide eaves and transfer loads, builders developed the interlocking bracket set called dougong (often rendered in older sources as tou-kung). Dougong layers rise above the posts and both strengthen the structure and provide visible ornament.
Traditional compounds - residences, temples, palaces - follow a clear symmetry along the main axis. In domestic compounds such as the siheyuan (courtyard house), rooms reflect social relationships: the principal room on the axis for the head of household, rear rooms for elders, and lateral wings for younger members.
Materials, Decoration, and Platforms
Wood has been the primary structural material for most of China's architectural history, so builders developed techniques to protect and embellish timber. Painted polychrome decoration (caihua) preserves wood and communicates rank and symbolism through color, motifs, and calligraphy. Buildings of high status often sit on raised platforms - higher plinths indicate greater importance and practical protection from moisture.
Carved wood, painted murals, glazed tile roofs, and stone or ceramic sculpture add visual and narrative layers. In southern China and Taiwan, especially, fine wood carving and dense decorative programs remain a strong local tradition.
Religious and Regional Variations
Temples for Buddhism, Taoism, folk religion and ancestral rites share the basic courtyard-and-hall organization but vary in plan, ornament, and ritual layout. Regional climates and local crafts shaped distinct vocabularies: roof curvature, tile glazing, and decorative programs differ between northern imperial complexes, southern temple houses, and Taiwan's vibrant folk temples.
The wooden frame and dougong system also influenced neighboring traditions in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, where local materials and tastes adapted the basic structural logic.
Preservation and Living Tradition
Many historical complexes - imperial palaces, temple ensembles, courtyard neighborhoods - survive as protected sites and living places of worship. Conservation faces challenges from urban growth, climate, and the vulnerability of timber to fire and decay. At the same time, traditional techniques and crafts continue in restoration projects and in active temple and residential construction, keeping the design language alive.