Students from the School of Architecture of Tianjin University (TJU) are doing architectural heritage surveying and mapping in the famous resort Zhuang Wang Fu (Prince Zhuang’s Mansion) in Tianjin. It’s the Mansion’s first large-scale professional mapping. On Wednesday afternoon, the School of Architecture of TJU held an on-site open class at Zhuang Wang Fu, leading students to appreciate the beauty of ancient Chinese architecture in the cultural relics.
This open class, based on Tianjin University’s practice of architectural heritage mapping, invited primary and secondary school students in Tianjin to grasp the magnificence of ancient Chinese architecture. Zhuang Wang Fu was also known as Li Chun's Ancestral Hall. In 1913, Li Chun, governor-military of Jiangxi Province, purchased the residence of Prince Zhuang, Pu Xu. He removed the mansion and shipped it to Tianjin for reconstruction. It is the largest official-style building of Qing Dynasty in the urban area of Tianjin, which is also the only known ancient building complex of Qing Dynasty’s royal-residence style outside Beijing.
Professor Wu Cong, head of this course, said: “Our surveying and mapping course took the lead in introducing information collection technologies such as 3D laser scanning and photogrammetry, and utilized building information modeling (BIM) to record results. In 2019, we launched the construction of the virtual simulation laboratory for basic skills of architectural heritage.”
In this open class, Professor Zhang Long from Tianjin University led the students to visit Li Chun's ancestral hall, introduced the characteristics and culture of different types of buildings, and then instructed them to assemble a building toy independently developed by the School of Architecture -“bracket set”, an important structure in classical architecture, which allowed attendees to enjoy the unique enchantment of Chinese classical architecture.
Professor Song Kun, Secretary of the Party Committee and Executive Vice President of the School of Architecture of Tianjin University, said: “As a teaching and research unit of architecture in Tianjin, the School of Architecture of TJU provides intellectual support for the research, protection, and inheritance of Tianjin's architectural heritage, which is the due social responsibility as well as the important research direction of our school. In the future, we will further promote comprehensive cooperation with Prince Zhuang’s Mansion, and build it into a popular science center of architectural culture in Tianjin.
The practice course of mapping ancient buildings at TJU has a long history, which started from the mapping of an ancient building complex on the central axis of Beijing in 1941. With the long-term persistence of exports such as Mr. Lu Sheng, Mr. Feng Jiankui, and Mr. Wang Qiheng, among others, and the strong support of the school, the practice course has achieved remarkable results, accumulating more than 20,000 pieces of surveying and drawing papers, which laid a solid foundation for China’s architectural history research and heritage protection work. Therefore, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage has established the only key scientific research center for the surveying and mapping of historic buildings at Tianjin University. The course has won numerous awards, including the national-level teaching achievement special award and second prize award, and the national-level excellent course. The ancient building surveying and mapping teaching team of Tianjin University also won the "National Teaching Team" in 2009, and the related technical achievements won the second prize of the Science and Technology Progress Award of the Ministry of Education in 2016.
By Chu Jingyi
Editor: Sun Xiaofang
