The Regional Architectural Sign System and the Logic of Cultural Formation in Traditional Dwellings around Chaohu Lake: A Semiotic Perspective

Abstract

Traditional dwellings around Chaohu Lake, located in the Jianghuai cultural region of central Anhui, exhibit hybrid architectural features shaped by natural conditions, migration, trade, and modern social changes. Existing studies, however, tend to list isolated elements such as horse-head walls and grey tiles, lacking a systematic framework that links materials, components, spatial organisation, and settlement environment. Drawing on architectural semiotics, this paper constructs a threetiered sign system—component, spatial, and environmental—based on secondary analysis of documented cases including Sanhe Ancient Town, Changlinhe and northern lakeside residences, Zhegao’s Beizha Old Street, and the “Jiulong Cuanzhu” migrant villages. Findings show that at the component level, grey bricks, small black tiles, flush or overhanging gable roofs, hollow brick walls, simplified horsehead walls, and restrained ornamentation produce a lowsaturation, plain, and solid visual character. At the spatial level, a longitudinal sequence of lower hall–passage hall–upper hall forms the core, complemented by mixed commercial–residential combinations (shops in front and dwellings behind) and defensive structures such as fortified towers, reflecting domestic order, commerce, and security needs. At the environmental level, water systems, streets and lanes, and settlement clusters generate a pattern adapted to hydrology, with gradual transitions from public to private spaces. These three levels are interconnected rather than isolated. The paper argues that the regional identity of Chaohu Lake dwellings does not rely on any unique symbol, but on a relational system formed through selective adaptation and recombination of multiple architectural traditions—southern skywells and columnandtie construction, northern courtyards and postandlintel construction, and Huizhou decorative motifs—under local climate, materials, and socioeconomic conditions. This identity is coshaped by hydrology, migration, commerce, and modern social change. The findings imply that heritage conservation should preserve not just visual motifs but the integrated logic of materials, spatial sequences, and environmental relationships.