1. Source photo
Drop a photo of a Chinese ancient building anywhere on this page, or choose a file. The image is read in your browser only — nothing is uploaded anywhere.
Or start from a reference building
2. What was read from the image
Reference building — no photo analysed yet
Type, tier count, bay count and palette are estimated from the pixels with a simple sky/silhouette analysis. It is a heuristic, not a survey.
3. How to use this
- Drag on the model to orbit it. Scroll or pinch to zoom.
- Press Play to raise the frame in the traditional order, or jump straight to any of the five stages.
- Switch the direction to Disassemble to take the building back down.
- Drag the Age slider from newly finished to a thousand years weathered.
- Turn on X-ray to make tiles and walls translucent and mark every mortise-and-tenon joint.
- Point at any timber, or pick a component in the list, to see its name and what it does.
Keyboard
- Space play or pause
- [ ] previous / next stage
- R reset D reverse direction
- X X-ray L labels
- , . age down / up
- Focus the model, then ← → ↑ ↓ to orbit and + − to zoom
Structural components
Listed in the order they go together. Select one to highlight it in the model.
Joints revealed by X-ray
Chinese timber frames use no nails in the structural joints. Each marker is one family of mortise-and-tenon work.