CONSTRUCTIVE ANALYSIS AND DIGITAL 3D RECONSTRUCTION OF THE YUANMINGYUAN RUINS: WANFANGANHE PAVILION (CHINA)

Abstract

The destruction of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing after the sacking by Franco-British troops in 1860 has been an inestimable loss in the history of architecture, described by several authors as one of the wonders of Chinese architecture. This paper presents the virtual reconstruction and geometrical analysis of the Universal Peace Pavilion for the Ancient Palace of Beijing. It is a unique project in traditional Chinese architecture both in its form and in the combination of the wooden structural elements. At present, only the foundation platform remains. In order to achieve a rigorous and accurate reconstruction, sources from China and the Forbidden City Museum have been used; the ancient Chinese texts of the Qing dynasty were translated, and the original existing documentation was compiled. The results include new unpublished documentation of the project. The current reconstruction of the Universal Peace Pavilion continues the efforts made by the "Mission Palais d’Eté" (Summer Palace Mission) between 1983 and 1985, carried out with the cooperation of French and Chinese researchers and architects. Recently, the "Cooperans" institution has resumed the research on the Old Summer Palace in order to strengthen the cultural relations between Europe and China. The digital reconstruction of the Palace makes it possible to visualise, analyse and understand a project in which only ruins remain. By documenting the remains of the ancient ruins and exporting the Wanfanganhe Pavilion to a virtual reality system, it is possible to establish a link between Chinese architecture and the interested people, breaking down language barriers. The process of measuring, three-dimensional (3D) modelling and translating the fundamental elements of traditional Chinese architecture has been carried out with precision, with the objective of generating a 3D model that represents an unforgettable part of Chinese history.