Ancient building method predates the screw
Lu Ban (507-440 BC), a household name in China, is a symbol of traditional Chinese craftsmanship. The carpenter is also widely known as the founding father of civil construction in the country.
It’s said Lu not only invented ancient weapons like the siege ladder cart and agricultural tools such as the stone mill, but also carpentry tools including the saw.
However, due to modern machinery, the beauty of traditional wood-making craftsmanship is mostly forgotten.
“Architecture Festival: The Resurgence of Wooden Architecture,” an exhibition now underway at chi K11 Art Museum, displays how intricate and smart traditional Chinese wood-making design and technique truly were. More than 10 architects and inheritors of intangible cultural heritages take part in the exhibition, resurrecting the traditional way of creating wooden structures.
Organized by K11 Craft & Guild Foundation and New World China, the exhibition occupies both the underground museum space and parts of the above-ground shopping mall’s four floors.
It’s divided into five sections: Seven-Column Style, Wood Structure and Craftsmanship, Wood Structure and Life, Wood Structure and Water and Woodwork and Art.
The exhibition fixes a spotlight on “Seven-Column Style,” featuring seven daunting columns in styles taken from as long ago as the Song Dynasty (960-1279) to present day.
Today, it would seem almost impossible to build something without screws, yet ancient Chinese carpenters connected different parts of wooden structures with the ingenious “tenon and mortise joint” technique.
The technique forged a joint between two structural pieces using a tenon and mitered edge of one structure and a mortise on a mitered edge of the other.
“Exploring and studying traditional wood-making structures has been limited to academic circles with little actual building,” said Wang Hao, one of the Seven-Column Style artists.
Perhaps that is why Wang Hao and Zuo Jing formed the Wood Construction Creation Society in 2015 in Hubei Province’s Baizhaoshan Mountain, whose mission is to study and master the ancient tenon and mortise joint technique.
Since 2018, the society has worked in tandem with K11 Craft & Guild Foundation.
The Architectural Festival displays the society’s best experimental works from the past five years. Some were purposely made for this exhibition, and some are samples of what Wang and his team excavated during their survey of eastern Zhejiang Province. There is an on-site screening of the survey designed to educate visitors about traditional wood structures.
Visitors can also see a cloud-shaped cabinet, furniture and utensils made using the tenon and mortise joint technique.
What’s more, there’s a huge water installation to guide the exhibition route, which reflects the reconstruction of the waterways of Jiangnan, regions south of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
A wood structure by Zheng Min and Wang Hao
A new-style wooden armchair by Wang Hao and Fang Ting, 2020
Exhibition info
Dates: Through October 18, 10am-10pm
Tickets: 100 yuan
Venue: chi K11 Art Museum
Address: B3, 300 Huaihai Road M.
