Tall timber Pagoda was very popular at one time in ancient China. The Yingxian Wooden Pagoda is an example of such building which survived close to 1000 years of exposure to the elements and forces of nature, wars, and human usage as well as misuse. This paper discusses many unique structural features of this Pagoda building by relating its special structural form and structural elements to its ability to resist large seismic forces.
Introduction
Timber was one of the most important building materials in China. It was used as roof, floor, and column members in most buildings including common residences, large villas for the affluent, ancestral halls, temples, and palaces. Nowadays timber is seldom used as prime structural components in modern Chinese construction even though there is an unprecedented construction boom since the late 1980s. The main reason for this dilemma is that the unsustainable depletion of domestic wood supply in the 1950s–1970s led to logging moratorium for several decades.
Without domestic wood supply, timber engineering education in universities ceased further leading to common misconceptions of wood as structural material. Nevertheless, there are still many examples of these ancient Chinese timber structures, which have withstood centuries of exposure to the elements and forces of nature, survived many wars, and endued human usage as well as misuse. It is important to study the past and examine some of these structures in detail as we progress into future novel applications of timber systems. Of particular interest are the ancient tall timber structures, the pagodas.
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