page_title: Fujian tulou
section_title: Architecture
hierarchical_section_title: Fujian tulou / Architecture
caption_attribution_description: earth building fuyu lou
context_page_description: The Fujian tulou are Chinese rural dwellings unique to the Hakka in the mountainous areas in southeastern Fujian, China. They were mostly built between the 12th and the 20th centuries.
  A tulou is usually a large, enclosed and fortified earth building, most commonly rectangular or circular in configuration, with very thick load-bearing rammed earth walls between three and five stories high and housing up to 800 people. Smaller interior buildings are often enclosed by these huge peripheral walls which can contain halls, storehouses, wells and living areas, the whole structure resembling a small fortified city.
  The fortified outer structures are formed by compacting earth, mixed with stone, bamboo, wood and other readily available materials, to form walls up to 6 feet thick. Branches, strips of wood and bamboo chips are often laid in the wall as additional reinforcement. The result is a well-lit, well-ventilated, windproof and earthquake-proof building that is warm in winter and cool in summer. Tulous usually have only one main gate, guarded by 4–5-inch-thick wooden doors reinforced with an outer shell of iron plate.
context_section_description: The layout of Fujian tulou followed the Chinese dwelling tradition of "closed outside, open inside" concept: an enclosure wall with living quarters around the peripheral and a common courtyard at the center. A small building at the center with open front served as an ancestral
  hall for ancestry worshipping, festivals, meetings, weddings, funerals and other ceremonial functions. The ground floor plan includes shapes such as circle, semicircle, oval, square, rectangle, and irregular pentagon.
  The foundation of tulou building was built with paved stones on top of compacted earth ground, in two to three tiers. There is a circular drain around the top tier foundation to prevent rainwater from damaging the tulou wall.
  In most cases, the weight bearing outer wall of tulou consists of two sections, the lower section is built from cut stone blocks or river cobbles held together with a lime, sand and clay mixture to a height of about one or two meters, depending upon the regional flood water level. The compacted earth wall stacked on top of the stone section. The construction of earth wall from compacted earth mixed with sticky rice and reinforced with horizontal bamboo sticks was described first in Song dynasty building standard Yingzao Fashi.
  The walls were built inclined toward the center, such that the natural force of gravity pushes the wall together.  This inward inclination method was also used in the construction of Pagoda of Fogong Temple. The thickness of the tulou wall decreases with height as specified in Yingzao Fashi. The bottom two stories of tulou are solid with no window nor gun hole, windows are open only from the third to fifth stories, because rooms at the bottom story served as family storage rooms and the upper stories were living quarters.
  The rooftops were covered with baked clay tiles, arranged radially;λ insertion technique was used at regular intervals to compensate for larger circumference at the outside.( Majority of roof tiles were laid from top to bottom, the gap caused by radial layout was compensated by
  small sections of tiles laid in λ shape inserts). This technique allowed the tiles to be laid radially without visible gaps, and without the use of small tiles at top, larger tiles at bottom.
  The eaves usually extend about two meters, protecting the earth wall from damage by rainwater pouring from the eaves.
  The wooden frame supporting the rooftop had no dougong elements common in traditional Chinese building.
  Circular corridors from 2nd to uppermost level were made of wood boards laid on horizontal wooden beams with one end inserted into the earth wall. The corridors are protected with a circle of wooden railings.
  Stairwells are distributed evenly around the corridors, four sets of stairwells being the usual number. Each stairwell leads from ground floor to the highest floor.
  Public water wells in groups of two or three are usually located at the center court; more luxurious tulous have in-house water well for each household in ground floor kitchen.  Most tulous have in built water pipes to offer protection to the upper wooden floors against fire (either accidental or as a result of attack).
caption: Exterior buildings
exif: {}