When Europe tried to build Chinese Architecture

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In the 18th century, Chinese houses, pavilions and palaces were erected across Europe as part of a fascination with all things oriental. However, Europeans still had a very limited understanding of what China was like, and mixed eye witness accounts and motifs found on imported goods with their own imagination and taste. The result is called Chinoiserie, and in this video I show some noteworthy examples of the buildings this movement created.

→ MUSIC

La Favorite – François Couperin
By “Telemann Trio” (http://musopen.org/)

6 Concertos in 7 Parts, Op.2 – Concerto No 1 in D Major for Strings, organ continuo – John Stanley
By “The Little Orchestra of London” (http://musopen.org/)

Concerto grosso in F major – Alessandro Scarlatti
By “The Modena Chamber Orchestra” (http://musopen.org/)

Symphony no. 40 in G minor, K. 550 – II. Andante – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
By “Musopen Symphony” (http://musopen.org/)

Symphony No.29 in A major, K.201/186a – IV. Allegro con spirito – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
By “Das Orchester Tsumugi” (http://musopen.org/)

Concerto in E-flat Major – Unico Wilhelm Wassenaer
By “The Stuttgart Baroque Orchestra” (http://musopen.org/)

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35 thoughts on “When Europe tried to build Chinese Architecture”

  8. They're basically the equivalent of "McMansions" in the U.S.

    "McMansions" are American fancy-pants houses that incorporate various European styles from different decades.

    For example, there'd be a rounded bay wall windows from the Victorian era houses, then right beside it would be pillars and a little balcony over the front door from the Tudor era house style.

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  11. You can really tell the difference in buildings constructed out of fascination of the culture vs fascination with what seems exotic… huge divide between tackiness and tastefulness.

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  12. William chamber’s Chinese inspired buildings aren’t that bad. The other buildings look extremely European, I would be surprised if someone told me they were meant to be Chinese, but with his buildings I can tell he actually went to China. They look inspired by actual Chinese buildings and not just what someone imagined Chinese buildings to look like. I say inspired though because they still don’t look like something you would actually find in China, the pagoda is made out of bricks, but I can tell it’s supposed to look Chinese.

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  15. It feels like some high fantasy elven architecture designs were derived from chinoiserie. I'm looking at Rivendell with it's peculiar roof crenelations, and window placements resembling nets. Also, night elf's kaldorei in world of warcraft resembles east asian cities.

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  24. Chinoiserie was a fun convergence in the 1700s of the same attitude in the West AND East. In China, the Qianlong Emperor had invited some Jesuit priests to remain long-term at his court. These Jesuits introduced all sorts of European architectural, interior decorating and painting techniques to the Chinese imperial court. So the use of European perspective and realism was incorporated in traditional Chinese paintings, to interesting effect. Then there were European-style pavilions at the Old Summer Palace outside Beijing. The Qianlong Emperor commanded the Jesuits to build for him a pleasure palace in the European manner. So the Jesuits incorporated some Chinese elements into a European rococo building. It was very similar in dimensions and some of its style to the Sans-Souci pleasure palace in Postdam, Germany (then Prussia). Too bad the British and French then went on to burn down this fusion edifice in 1860, during the Second Opium War.

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  25. At 0:32. Fascinating. I had never heard of a European pleasure palace built completely of porcelain. That was a very expensive undertaking back in the 1670s. Porcelain was worth its weight in gold. The Chinese did the same, building a giant porcelain tower in Nanjing in the early 1400s. Since the Chinese were way better with porcelain making, the tower stood the test of time and lasted centuries instead of seeing cracks within 10 year of construction. This porcelain tower so amazed European and Arab visitors that it became a true "wonder of the world" back before the mid-1800s, when it was destroyed during a Chinese civil war.

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  26. At 6:48. That actually has the right proportions of a true Chinese pagoda. Good thing this Chambers character had spent some time in China to see what actual Chinese buildings looked like. It was not too much a flight of fancy, like the Potsdam structure, with its monkeys, palm trees and random people under umbrellas. LOL.

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  27. At 13:52. Fun fact: there is a similar trompe l'oeil hall in the Forbidden City in Beijing, China. The Qianlong Emperor was enamored with the Jesuits at his court, especially when they introduced European-style realism and perspective to Chinese painting. So he commanded these Jesuits to paint for him a huge hall with trompe l'oeil all over in the 1780s. It was to be part of the emperor's retirement quarters, as he was pretty old by then. It is a magnificent hall, filled with all sorts of European-style illusions but with Chinese symbolism incorporated throughout. It was renovated about 20 years ago, though I think it's still closed to the public. I think nowadays only distinguished foreign guests of the Chinese government are allowed to see it.

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  28. At 15:42. It's true. Chinoiserie has not died in interior decoration. Some of the most arresting interior decoration schemes in modern houses incorporate something old and Chinese/Japanese in the interior decoration. Be it a Chinese Buddha or a Ming vase or even an ancient Chinese/Japanese screen, this style of fusion decoration never gets old.

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