Project Elements - VandyVRC/tcadrt GitHub Wiki

When complete, the Traditional Chinese Architecture Digital Research Tool will be a be a public, browser-based architectural history research tool consisting of four parts:

1. A linked open data (LOD) database of architectural complexes and individual structures searchable both by name of site (ancient and modern) and by technical terminology used to describe individual elements of single timber-frame buildings that are known to vary across regions. Search terms will be in Chinese (traditional and simplified scripts), pinyin Romanization of modern Mandarin, and English translation.
2. A photo archive of images keyed into the search terms of the database. This archive is based on my own photographs of more than one hundred middle-period structures and the building complexes of which they are part. This will be supplemented with architectural drawings to further research and teaching.
3. A digital mapping tool that will allow search results to be located on a map of modern China using U.S. Geological Survey (public domain) base maps. This will be linked to the photo archive to facilitate viewing of search results through the map interface.
4. Photographs and transcriptions of epigraphic information found at a given site. Titles of Stele inscriptions and donor names will be searchable using traditional Chinese characters.