1、1The enlightenment that Modulus Relationship for Ming Style Chairs gives furniture designAbstract. The purpose of this thesis is to explore the relationship between “Modeling” and “Elements” of Ming Style chairs and to study the unity of opposites in “function” and “shape” of the furniture design .
2、The method used in the study is known as the analysis of the structure aesthetics for Ming Style chairs in view of his modeling characteristic and structure relationship by the modeling way. Two main points will be presented.1） The design elements of Mings Style chairs such as size， style， comfort a
3、nd functions complied with the design idea of “modulus”. 2） The design concept of Modulus is exactly what we need to learn and apply in modern Chinese - style furniture. Key words： Modulus； Ming Style chairs； Structure aesthetics 1. Introduction Background：Le Corbusier， a master of building designer
4、， put forward the concept of Modulus. The Modulus emphasizes the body comfort and the buildings function， which is the 2perfect unity of man and organic nature. Ming Style chairs are famous in the world because of its beautiful structure. Do they some relationships？ literature review：The research of
5、 the Chinese seating has been studying by the foreign countries. In 1754， Chippendale wrote the famous bookGentleman and Cabinet Makers Director（Chippendale ， Thomas. Gentleman and Cabinet Makers Director. Dover Publications： London， June 1， 1966） ，In this book， he put forward the China style， one o
6、f three important styles. Owen Jones wrote in his bookThe Grammar Of Ornamental：“Chinese decoration is very important ，because it displays the perfection and the skill in process and technology.”（Owen Jones. The Grammar Of Ornamental. Diane Pub Co： London， March 2004）Existing problems：The Modulus ha
7、s been used to research the building design since concept is proposed .However Modulus is not only suitable to the building artist， but also to the other artistic design ，such as furniture design. There was not a little research in the Modulus of the furniture design. Thesis statement： The structure
8、 of Ming Style chairs originates from architectures beam and frame structure. The making of these chairs combines many scientific methods and it is addressed “practical aesthetics theory”respectfully by descendants. His modeling 3characteristics shine more brilliantly in the Modulus company. My pape
9、r applies the modeling way to analysis the structure aesthetics for several kinds of Ming Style chairs in view of his modeling characteristic and structure relationship. Arrangement： I will divide this paper to three parts. In the part 1，I will introduce the concept of “modulus” and in the part 2，I
10、will analysis the relationship between “Modeling” and “Elements” of Ming Style chairs. Then， I will make the conclusion. 2. The Conception Of “Modulus” “Modulus” belongs to the function of creation and its category is human body engineering. Le Corbusier， a master of building designer， put forward t
11、he concept of Modulus， which mainly means the measure controlling tool that accords with human body scale and has harmonious proportion relationship in the building design. In early Le Corbusier published “toward the new architectural” in 1923， on the third chapter he mentioned “reference line”. He
12、thought that the line is used to determine the composition of each element of the position so as to achieve overall harmonious and beautiful auxiliary lines. And in this chapter he wrote： “A modulus gives us the ability to measure and unity； a reference line that we can carry out the composition and
13、 satisfied.” The Modulus emphasizes the 4body comfort and the buildings function， which is the perfect unity of ration and organic nature. Modulus is not only suitable to the building artist， but also to the other artistic design. 3. Ming Style Chairs The structure of Ming Style originates from arch
14、itectures beam and frame structure， which is foursquare， well proportioned and with pithy lucid and lively style. The making of this furniture combines many scientific methods like aesthetics， mechanics， philosophy and human body engineering and is addressed “practical aesthetics theory”respectfully
15、 by descendants. His modeling characteristics shine more brilliantly in the conception of Modulus. Now， we discuss the Ming Style chairs structure， so we can find the relationship of “Modulus” and “Element”. Ming Style chairs continuously innovate in the traditional production techniques， not only e
16、mbody the practical Chinese traditional aesthetics， but also form a concise model style with the modern body engineering. It harmonizes proportion and curvature， combines the different parts of body scale of the plastic arts organically and manifests the extreme high scientificalness and practical a
17、pplicability. 53.1 Seat height analysis In order to analyse the height of Ming style chairs， I measured a lot of chairs. There are government cap armchair， both round armchair， four-owned government cap armchair， rose chair， side chair， etc. In terms of seat height， the average height of both round
18、chairs came to around 51.8cm. The standard deviation （SD） of the seat heights was calculated at 1.31cm. The average height of government cap chairs is 49cm.The standard deviation is 1.8cm.Given the conservative， refined nature of these types of chairs， with strict guidelines that governed the their
19、construction， it can be said with some degree of confidence that a stylistic conformity ranging slightly above 50cm place for Ming Style non-folding armchairs. A survey was carried out in Chengdu city Sichuan province， Beijing city， Hangzhou city Zhejiang province and Yangzhou city Jiangsu province
20、which showed that seats of locally made Ming Style armchairs in rural areas conform to an average of 50cm. It could be assumed， therefore， that a 50cm average seat height would have been recognized as a key feature of Chinese armchairs. But the seat height of these armless chairs， for example， side
21、chair， is 37cm-48cm.The average size is 44cm. 3.2 Seat depth analysis 6In slight contrast to the width of surveyed chair， depth of seat remained surprisingly uniform within its respective chair type. The depths ranged 38.9cm-41.5cm within the measured armless chairs， from the shallowest to the deepe
22、st. Early tall back models show the greatest uniformity， however， with an average depth of 37.1cm and a deviation of 0.28cm.Most of the armchairs depth ranged 42cm-49cm. And tall back chairs and armchairs had a standard deviation of 1.45cm and 3.01cm respectively. But for one extraordinary example i
23、n the form of an unusual armless chair， it would be calculated at 2.42cm.So， the average depth of Ming Style chair is 42.3cm. 4. Discussion From the data above showed， we can clearly discover that the size of Ming Style Chairs height and depth is mainly to comply with the standard of human body engi
24、neering in the scope of deviation. Human body engineering requires that the height of seat is 44.0cm，and the depth is 42.0cm.The average seat height of Ming Style armchairs is 51.3cm， and the data of side chair is 42.3cm.The average depth of all of these chairs is 41cm.We find the height of armchair
25、 seems too high， but at that time people used to put foot to a pedal， its height is about 8cm or so. So， Ming Style chairs structure is mainly 7made by “Modulus”. 5. Conclusion Ming Style chairs is the most important feature of plastic arts of humanized design， it is precisely because of the humaniz
26、ed design that Ming Style chairs exude a structure aesthetics， a beauty not exaggeration， not public. It is a good use of “Modulus“ giving structure beauty “Elements“. Mings Style chairs beautiful shape come from its rigorous structure， the unity of opposites in “function” and “shape”. In this paper
27、， we refine the Chinese elements from designing aesthetics to arose the aesthetic thinking in Chinese furniture design and to unite the classic and modern style， art and science. Then we can make our Chinese modern furniture which possesses the Chinese distinguishing features and combines the functi
28、on and beauty appreciation. References 1 Owen Jones. The Grammar Of Ornamental. Diane Pub Co， 2004：38 2 Chippendale Thomas. Gentleman and Cabinet Makers Director . Dover Publications：，1966：154 3 Ishimura， S. A Research on the Relation between Culture and Chairs in the Chinese Countryside. Housing Research 8Foundation Annual Report ，2000：27-88 4 Wang Shixiang. The Study Of Ming Style Furniture. The Joint Publishing House，2008：260（In Chinese） 5 Wang Zhengshu. Authentication of Ming and Qing Furniture. Shanghai bookstore publishing house，2007：41（In Chinese）
