Dou-Gong (斗拱)- The Building Blocks
Category:
3D Printing
Toy Design
This building block set was created in 2018. It is my first 3D printing project. It is a scale model of a woodworking structure used in ancient buildings. It was cmodeled in Maya and printed in an FDM printer at the School of Visual Arts. I chose red material as red represents happiness and liveliness in Chinese culture.
Dou-Gong (斗拱 dǒu gǒng) is a signature structure in ancient Chinese wood buildings; it also exists in other names and styles in other Asian wood buildings during its long history. It is a structure that connects the pillar and the roof, allowing a single pillar to carry a part of the roof that is far larger than the pillar’s projected area. In a Dou-Gong structure, “Dou” means the square paddings, and “Gong” means the wood beam that sits in between the paddings.
The wood building is a cultural symbol and living evidence of how our ancestors interacted with nature. Even though concrete-based buildings replaced wood-only buildings due to cost efficiency, bringing their knowledge to more people is meaningful. By scaling down a section of Dou-Gong, players get a closer look at how it is assembled and why it is able to hold a larger structure. When wood-only buildings were considered impermanent or luxury, this building block set brought knowledge and beauty of ancient woodworking to the users living in concrete buildings.
Dou-Gong (斗拱 dǒu gǒng) is a signature structure in ancient Chinese wood buildings; it also exists in other names and styles in other Asian wood buildings during its long history. It is a structure that connects the pillar and the roof, allowing a single pillar to carry a part of the roof that is far larger than the pillar’s projected area. In a Dou-Gong structure, “Dou” means the square paddings, and “Gong” means the wood beam that sits in between the paddings.
The wood building is a cultural symbol and living evidence of how our ancestors interacted with nature. Even though concrete-based buildings replaced wood-only buildings due to cost efficiency, bringing their knowledge to more people is meaningful. By scaling down a section of Dou-Gong, players get a closer look at how it is assembled and why it is able to hold a larger structure. When wood-only buildings were considered impermanent or luxury, this building block set brought knowledge and beauty of ancient woodworking to the users living in concrete buildings.
