1. 1 northern architecture

Compared with the southern region, the climate in the northern region of China is relatively cold, the land is relatively loose, the terrain is relatively flat, the building materials are relatively simple, mostly civil materials, and the humanities and folk customs are relatively simple, simple and rough. It is the comprehensive influence of natural customs, cultural customs, building materials and other factors that make the residential buildings in northern China generally emphasize sunshine, showing simple architectural characteristics, while the group layout shows a generally neat and square pattern.

The northern region can be divided into North China Plain and Loess Plateau, with different architectural layouts and styles.

1. 1. 1 North China Plain

The North China Plain starts from Taihang Mountain and Western Henan Mountain in the west, the Yellow Sea, Bohai Sea and Shandong Hill in the east, Yanshan Mountain in the north, Tongbai Mountain and Dabie Mountain in the southwest and northern Jiangsu and Anhui in the southeast, including the borders of seven provinces and cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong, Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu, covering an area of about 300,000 square kilometers.

North China Plain is the cradle of ancient culture in China, and there are many ancient cities with regular buildings and large courtyards. Generally, small courtyards are reserved in the atrium and corner for ventilation and lighting. The layout of buildings is generally discrete, and each single building is relatively independent. The architectural shape is not undulating, the house is low and flat, and the roof curve is flat. Bricks and tiles are mostly used as building materials, and the wood structure is relatively large, and most of them are relatively simple to decorate.

Siheyuan, a square or rectangular courtyard, is the most common combined building form in residential buildings in North China Plain. It is characterized by regular appearance and symmetrical midline, but its usage is extremely flexible. The simplest quadrangle has only one yard, while the more complicated one has two or three yards. The deep house compound where rich people live is usually composed of several quadrangles side by side with a partition wall in the middle.

The gate of quadrangles is usually opened in the southeast corner or northwest corner. The north house in the yard is the first one, which is built on the masonry abutment, bigger than other houses, and it is the owner's living room. There are east wing and west wing on both sides of the yard, which are the houses of other family members. There is a corridor between the main room and the wing room for people to walk and rest. The walls of quadrangles and houses facing the street generally do not open windows, and the environment in the courtyard is closed and quiet.

1. 1.2 Loess Plateau

The Loess Plateau includes vast areas west of Taihang Mountain, north of Qinling Mountain, east of Sun Moon Mountain in Qinghai and south of the Great Wall. It spans Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia and Henan provinces, covering an area of about 400,000 square kilometers, and is the cradle of ancient culture in China.

The building courtyards in the Loess Plateau are very closed, with low roofs and gentle slopes, and quite a few buildings adopt flat roofs. In terms of building materials, bricks and tiles are rarely used, and adobe or rammed earth walls are mostly used, so the decoration is simple. Cave buildings are often built on the loess plateau, and the overall style is simple and simple. However, there are many mosques in Hui inhabited areas, which are tall, steep in roof, luxurious in decoration and colorful, which are obviously different from ordinary folk buildings.

1.2 south building

Compared with the northern region, the southern region of China has a hot climate, narrow land, alternating hills and plains, rich and diverse building materials, and the overall style of residential buildings is fresh and transparent.

The southern region can be divided into two regions, the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River plain and Lingnan region, and their architectural layout and style are different.

1.2. 1 Yangtze plain

The middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River plain is located along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River east of Yichang, Hubei Province. It consists of two lakes (Jianghan Plain and Dongting Lake Plain), Poyang Lake Plain, Jiangsu-Anhui Plain along the Yangtze River, He Lixia Plain (Central Anhui Plain) and Yangtze River Delta Plain, covering an area of about 200,000 square kilometers. Because the contradiction between small land and large population in this area has always been prominent, with dense buildings and narrow courtyards. The roof slope is steep, the wing angle is high, the decoration is exquisite and rich, and there are many carvings. The overall style of traditional buildings in the plain of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River is beautiful and dexterous.

1.2.2 Lingnan area

Lingnan refers to the area south of Wuling in the south, which is equivalent to the whole territory of Guangdong and Guangxi, as well as parts of Hunan and Jiangxi provinces. The residential buildings in this area are relatively regular in plan, with small courtyards, high houses and narrow doors and windows. The roof slope is steep, and the wing angle is larger than that of houses in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Township buildings are dense and closed. House decoration, sculpture and painting are equally rich, complex and fine. The overall style of architecture in Lingnan area is lightness and exquisiteness.

2 Historical evolution of North and South architecture

2. 1 Overview of architectural development in China

The historical evolution of China architecture is closely related to the development of China culture. The ancients who lived in different natural conditions adapted to local conditions and used different materials and practices to create ancient buildings with different structural styles and artistic styles.

As early as/kloc-0.0 million years ago in the Paleolithic Age, China primitive people knew to use natural caves as shelters, and caves inhabited by primitive people were found in Anhui, Chongqing, Shaanxi, Beijing, Liaoning, Guizhou, Guangdong, Hubei, Zhejiang and other places.

In the Neolithic Age, the Chinese tribes in the middle reaches of the Yellow River used loess as the wall, built semi-caves with wooden frames and grass mud, and later developed into above-ground buildings, forming settlements. Because of the wet and rainy weather, the Yangtze River basin is often flooded and hurt by animals, so it has developed into a pole-column building. In this regard, there are also many records in ancient literature that "building wood as a nest to avoid group harm" (Han Feizi Wu Zhu) and "the upper one is a nest and the lower one is a hole" (Mencius Teng Wengong Xia).

From the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, the architectural forms of residential buildings in China have been completely developed. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, the layout of tall palaces and quadrangles appeared, which were made of bricks. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the beams, columns and arches inside and outside Taixu Palace were decorated, and murals were painted on the walls. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the wooden buildings were resplendent, richly decorated and beautifully stretched, and huge architectural groups such as Epang Palace and Weiyang Palace appeared.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, China's architectural art developed rapidly, with remarkable achievements in wood structure construction technology and mature architectural elements such as abutment, masonry structure and roof style. Ming and Qing Dynasties is the last period of great development of ancient architecture in China. The existing architectural forms in the north and south are basically mature, and they are customized in types and characteristics. At the same time, with the frequent economic and cultural exchanges across the country and at home and abroad, new-style residential houses are constantly emerging.

Generally speaking, after thousands of years' development, the ancient architecture in China took the wooden frame structure as the main way, and rationally used the artistic means such as architectural proportion, scale, rhythm, balance and hierarchy. Its overall style is simple, elegant and quiet, showing the unique temperament and aesthetic tendency of China culture.

2.2 Ancient North-South Representative Buildings

There are many types of ancient buildings in China, including palaces, temples, pagodas, houses and garden buildings. Among them, the achievements of palaces and garden buildings are the most prominent. In this paper, the Forbidden City and Suzhou Gardens are selected as the representatives of ancient north and south buildings in China, and their characteristics are analyzed.

2.2. 1 Qiao Family Courtyard in Qixian County, Shanxi Province

Qiaojia Courtyard is located in Qiaojiabao Village, Qixian County, Shanxi Province, covering an area of more than 8,700 square meters and a construction area of more than 3,800 square meters. It was built during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty. Qiao Family Courtyard is not only a typical form of Shanxi folk houses, but also a typical form of ancient northern architecture in China.

This is a complex with exquisite structure and large scale. The whole courtyard is located on a square wall, surrounded by closed walls. The wall is made of brick, and the height is more than 10 meter. The upper layer is a crib in the form of retaining wall. You can also see towers and pavilions from the outside, just like the watchtower on the city wall, which is very imposing. On the whole, the jstars courtyard is like a solid castle under the cover of solid walls. The layout of the jstars courtyard is double happiness. * * * Six hospitals and ten hospitals are interlaced with each other, with rooms ***3 13. Such a complex layout constitutes a changeable architectural space.

Although it seems that the building of the Qiao Family Courtyard is a whole now, in fact, these six courtyards were built at the same time. The largest Qiao Family Courtyard is Courtyard No.1 and Courtyard No.2 ... Their layout is a typical building courtyard with five rooms inside and three rooms outside in Qixian area. Specifically, the main room and the east and west rooms of the inner courtyard are all five bays, while the east and west rooms of the outer courtyard are all three bays, and the inner and outer courtyards are connected by a heart-piercing hall. In addition to the wing, the inverted building, the hall and the principal room are all two-story buildings. On the overall composition, the roof of the Qiao family compound has a sense of rhythm. Roof from high to low, ups and downs, cadence, in repetition, connection, staggered, intermittent has been vividly displayed.

2.2.2 Humble Administrator's Garden in Suzhou

Humble Administrator's Garden is the representative of Jiangnan Garden and the largest classical garden in Suzhou. Now it is listed as a national key cultural relics protection unit. This place used to be the residence of Lu Guimeng, a poet in Tang Dynasty, and Dahong Temple in Yuan Dynasty. In the fourth year of the Ming Dynasty (A.D. 1509), Wang, an imperial envoy in Hongzhi and Jiajing periods of the Ming Dynasty, bought it after retiring to Suzhou after his career was frustrated, and hired representatives from Wu Pai to participate in the design blueprint, which lasted for 16 years.

The whole garden includes three parts: the middle, the west and the east. The middle part is the essence of the whole garden, and the layout is natural. It is characterized by water, vast water surface, pavilions built around the pool, and connected by leaky windows and cloisters. The spaces in the garden communicate and penetrate with each other everywhere, forming rich levels.

Due to the dense population in the south, the garden area is small, and there are many rivers, lakes, garden stones and evergreen trees. Therefore, the garden scenery is delicate, exquisite, tortuous and profound, which is completely different from the architectural style of the Grand Palace in the north.

3 Analysis of the reasons for the differences between North and South buildings

The formation and development of architecture are closely related to natural factors, social factors and regional culture. China has a vast territory and is influenced by many factors. The forms and postures of traditional buildings in the north and south are various and have distinctive regional characteristics.

3. 1 climatic factors

The northern part of China is mostly located in the middle temperate zone, and the climate is relatively cold, so houses need sufficient sunshine. Therefore, the main rooms are facing south, and the internal composition of the house is mostly discrete. The higher the latitude, the lower the temperature and the looser the land use, the more obvious the degree of this dispersion. The cold climate also requires buildings to have thick walls and thick roofs, which makes the building entity very heavy and inconvenient to sag and protrude. Architectural space is strictly bound by entities and must take on a regular shape.

On the contrary, the climate in the south is hot, the walls and roofs of houses can be made thin and light, and the building space is in a more active position, which can be freely extended, uneven, easy to extend and transparent.

3.2 Topographic and geomorphological factors

The plains and plateaus in northern China are widely distributed and the population density is sparse. Therefore, settlements and buildings are often located in flat areas, and most of them belong to plain type. The looseness of lots and flat terrain provide powerful conditions and foundations for the regular layout of villages and houses in the north. Therefore, the local architectural forms in the same area are very unified.

3.3 Human factors

The differences in architectural styles between North and South are also due to the differences in cultural customs, preferences and aesthetic concepts between North and South residents. The south is complicated and free because of many factors, while the north is regular, simple and consistent. Because of the different humanistic traditions, there are many differences between them in architectural decoration. The decoration in the south is more realistic, while the decoration of most traditional houses in the north is more abstract. This is the so-called "southern bamboo slips" and "southern luxury northern bamboo slips".

4 the face of modern north-south architecture

With the rapid development of modern social science and technology, the expansion of regional space and the revolution of production mode, people have also been liberated from the closed environment of intergenerational dependence, and the traditional concept of regional time and space has been constantly broken. The difference between modern north and south buildings is not as great as before, but there are still some differences in layout, architectural style, building materials and architectural decoration due to the influence of climate, topography, landforms and customs.

4. 1 Design of building space and doors and windows

Winter in the north is cold and long. During the heating period in winter, we should try our best to make the heating heat of the building lobby space reach all corners of the lobby evenly. If the heat is not enough, it will not only consume energy, but also freeze the residents to death. Therefore, the lobby space design of residential buildings in the north is generally small, mostly square, and the semi-outdoor space of buildings is also less. Using the warm and humid climate in the south, you can make halls and semi-outdoor spaces with different space experiences.

Buildings in the north usually have double windows. When winter comes, windows should be sealed. When you enter spring, you should open the window. Therefore, in the design of doors and windows, it is only required to meet the requirements of general natural lighting and pay attention to practicality. Large ribbon windows are rare. The southern building is provided with single-story windows. In addition to practical, but also pay attention to the beautiful and generous, mostly large-area ribbon windows.

4.2 Architectural modeling and facade design

Influenced by traditional humanistic factors, the modeling and facade design of northern buildings emphasize massiness and simplicity, while as far as materials are concerned, bricks and stones are chosen as far as possible. The south emphasizes freshness and transparency, and the facade is mostly light. In the choice of building materials, paint, wood structure, imitation wood structure and steel structure are mostly used.

4.3 attic and basement

Because the climate is dry, the soil is hard, and the sunshine time is shorter than that in the south, modern buildings in the north have basements and attics, which can make use of more space and have the advantages of being warm in winter and cool in summer. The climate in the south is hot and humid with strong sunshine. Therefore, the function of the attic is mainly to provide heat insulation for the space below the attic, which is rarely used in practice. At the same time, due to the high cost of moistureproof, basements of modern buildings in the south are rare.

5 the development trend of China architecture

Through the analysis of the north and south buildings in China, we have a further rational understanding of their existence, development and continuation. We should treat the elements of traditional architectural design with a critical eye. We can't all be sure and use it directly, which will only create some antique buildings, which is not in line with the aesthetic orientation of modern people. Blindly retro, there will be no innovation. At the same time, we can't completely deny it, because the traditional architecture in China is the root of our modern architectural design.

Therefore, the development trend of architecture in China should be to combine the natural and human environment, respect the history and national traditions, and realize the combination of regionality and times. In particular, we should learn from the spatial layout, modeling vocabulary, color and detail decoration of traditional architectural culture, pursue the harmony between architecture and natural and humanistic environment, and flexibly and appropriately use modern materials, technologies and construction methods to build an excellent building that not only conforms to the aesthetic characteristics of modern people, but also has the charm of China culture.