That is all kinds of awesome. I met a woman at a cocktail party a couple of months ago who taught "Biomimetic Architecture" at SciArc - I was immediately enthralled, and wanted to ask more, but I think she realized I had no hope of really understanding her on any level except the metaphorical...
Absolutely -- the closer (geographically) I get to sub-tropical architecture (like Laos, and Thailand) the more the rooflines seem to float. I just wish that kind of architecture got more attention in the west, because it's a venerable and impressive amount of engineering going on there.
Thanks! Most of those links are related to Japanese roofs, and I do have actual plans (even if they require a great deal of math to translate from the Japanese unit-systems to imperial measurements) for Japanese, and could probably parse the Korean architectural sketches I've got... but Chinese, Korean, and Japanese all work on a system of elaborate brackets. Like, incredibly complex and gravity-defying brackets, given the weights of the roofs and the overhangs being anywhere from five to twenty feet, especially as you get into official or sacred building-spaces -- but the overhang on this image appears to be less than the average Chinese/Korean/Japanese overhang, plus it's supported by angle-brackets into the building's side, instead of being built upwards on brackets supported by the ceiling-beams.
At the same time, C/K/J roofs aren't curved in every aspect, but are generally flat planes that curve at the edges and corners. When they do overlap, it's defined between them, in a way that doesn't look the same as the Laotian roofline (in the picture). It's rather uncommon to see them layered in the way of Laotian and Thai roofs. Well, I say "uncommon" but I suppose I should say "if such roofs exist, they're rated as worth barely a footnote in most [english-language] architectural texts."
Obviously, the only solution is to GO THERE MYSELF!
The Architecture volume (the 6th or 7th?) in the Indonesian Heritage encyclopedia series has some cutaway views of the construction in the insular versions of this kind of roof. Some of them--like the Rumah Gadang (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rumah_Gadang) of Minangkabau and the Toraja tongkonan (http://www.toraja.net/culture/arcitecture/index.html)--can be every bit as spectacular as the mainland/peninsular examples.
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Date: 14 Dec 2010 06:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 15 Dec 2010 05:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 14 Dec 2010 09:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 15 Dec 2010 05:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 14 Dec 2010 10:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 15 Dec 2010 06:04 am (UTC)At the same time, C/K/J roofs aren't curved in every aspect, but are generally flat planes that curve at the edges and corners. When they do overlap, it's defined between them, in a way that doesn't look the same as the Laotian roofline (in the picture). It's rather uncommon to see them layered in the way of Laotian and Thai roofs. Well, I say "uncommon" but I suppose I should say "if such roofs exist, they're rated as worth barely a footnote in most [english-language] architectural texts."
Obviously, the only solution is to GO THERE MYSELF!
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Date: 15 Dec 2010 01:15 pm (UTC)