Regional Style in China's Monumental Timber Architecture, 900-1200

FAIN: FA-54586-09

Tracy Miller
Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN 37203-2416)

A book-length examination of local architectural traditions evident in the extant wooden buildings of China dating from the tenth through the twelfth centuries. In this study I use the GPS (Global Positioning System) to map extant buildings from this period in order to define regions of shared architectural styles. With this information I shall show that differences in architectural style in middle period China were not defined by political boundaries, and thus were not the result of the imposition of an official style onto local areas. Changes in architectural style were instead the result of a complex interaction between distinctive building traditions that retained their regional identities after political conquest. NEH funding will enable me to travel to Taiwan to work with specialists in digital applications for historical maps, Mainland China to examine three buildings critical to the completion of my project, and also support time for composing the first draft of the manuscript.

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