Fenestrations of Guyi Garden, Nanxiang

Fenestration is generally the window and door openings, an arch way or a structural entrance piece. Looking at the pictorial ensemble of fenestration, there are not less than some fifteen variable types of fenestration.

Some built together with intricate lattice work, many of these fenestrations found in the Guyi Garden derived directly from the everyday objects, symbols and images; inclusively vase, a fan, a gourd, a ruyi plaything, cumulus cloud, and geometrical shapes.

Fenestration serves as a physical or visual opening from an area to another; it is a view to another world beyond. It demarcates a context from here and there, a transitional setting. Fenestration can be ceremonial or casual, formal or informal, large or subliminal, central or secluded in location and position.

The variety of fenestration reflects an artistic or décor expression in appreciation of nature. Nature inherently tends towards irregular and curvilinear form. Due to its garden nature, the fenestration of Guyi Garden is a direct derivative of the organic environment.

Jeremy
Shanghai upon the Sea
July 11, 2010