Daming 1805

Chapter 476 New Hall and Office Building Design

The new office building of the Central Government Office of the Ming Dynasty is currently the most important project in the imperial court.

The person directly in charge is of course Lei Hong, Minister of Jianbu of Ming Dynasty.

After Lei Hong received the order, he immediately had a lot of doubts.

The order did not mention the approximate planned address of the new imperial court building, nor did it mention asking him to investigate and select the address.

Just let the Ministry of Construction be responsible for the engineering design of the new Central Government Office Building itself.

However, the engineering design itself is directly related to the state of the construction land to be used.

What kind of building can be built in what kind of foundation state, if you don’t know the foundation, you can’t mess around.

Lei Hong thought about it for a long time, combined with other public orders, a guess appeared in his mind:
"Could it be that Your Majesty wants to temporarily move all the ministries of the imperial court to Nanjing, and rebuild them directly at the original sites of the yamen after freeing up space?"

This guess is so reasonable that other engineering leaders have similar thoughts.

However, this is inconsistent with the habit of receiving emperor orders after the Renwu Dynasty.

Starting from Emperor Shizu, the orders were always simple, direct and easy to understand, and they would not intentionally fail to explain things clearly.

Unless the emperor really didn't expect it at the time.

If it was really for the purpose of making room for the temporary relocation of the yamen, it is impossible not to clarify the purpose.

Moreover, if an 80-meter-high office building is to be built on the original site, it will directly block the Forbidden City behind.

In addition, to do engineering design, it is necessary to communicate with Party A clearly about the requirements. Lei Hong has many questions to confirm.

For example, should the new office building be divided into multiple courtyards as before, or combined into a conjoined building.

In this office building, do you want to arrange large meeting rooms and halls of sufficient scale?

Do you want to reserve a special office and lounge for the emperor, etc.?

Being cautious, Lei Hong still called the Secretary of the General Administration and made an appointment to meet the emperor Zhu Jianyan.

At the same time, the main craftsmen of the Ministry of Construction were convened to discuss and sort out the important issues that need to be confirmed before the design.

Then, after the morning court the next morning, according to the notice of the Secretary of General Administration, he stayed and went to the office alone to meet the emperor.

After Lei Hong greeted An and said hello, he sat on the seat of the emperor and first asked about the location.

Zhu Jianyan's initial public order did not directly mention the issue of site selection, but did not disclose the site selection of the new office building of the imperial court.

Because the location was actually in Yingtian Mansion, not Shuntian Mansion.

If this address is directly disclosed, then the people below will immediately understand that the emperor has the idea of ​​returning to Tianfu.

It's best not to make this news public right away.

However, Zhu Jianyan has completed university-level cultural courses and has practiced in local and central government offices for more than ten years. He is not the otaku emperor before the Renwu Dynasty.

He knew that this problem could be concealed from the outside world, but he couldn't hide it from the engineering staff.

Zhu Jianyan looked around, and after telling all the staff to leave, he explained clearly to Lei Hong:

"The issue of site selection has been handed over to the Royal Engineering Company.

"The office building of Xinyamen is located around the new palace of Yingtian Mansion.

"Now the Ministry of Construction can do the general design of the shape and structure of the office building by itself.

"When the survey results come out, we will make detailed engineering design according to the results.

"This design can be done together with the new palace design.

"The Ministry of Construction and the Royal Engineering Company have come up with several different types of proposals independently.

"The palace is to be divided into two major areas, the living area and the ceremonial area.

"The residential area is designed according to the pattern of a palace, there is no need for a serious and neat pattern, and there is no need to deliberately build high-rise buildings.

"The ceremony area is designed according to the solemn standard of the traditional Forbidden City, and all the ceremonial functions of the Forbidden City should be realized.

"However, without my word of mouth, this matter should not be made public for the time being.

"The address survey is completed and the detailed engineering design has begun and must not be disclosed to anyone.

"Once the engineering design has begun, it must not be disclosed to anyone except those directly involved in the design."

Lei Hong was a little stunned when he heard the news.

The emperor actually wanted to move the capital!
After this earth-shattering news came out, all the previous doubts were suddenly cleared up.

The new office building will of course be placed next to the new palace.

It is allowed to build the new Yamen building higher because the palace will also be built higher!
Thinking of the emperor's password, Lei Hong hurriedly stood up and seriously agreed:

"Lei Hong, Secretary of the Ministry of Industry and Industry, would like to obey the holy edict."

This news should only be known to him, if it is leaked, the emperor will probably arrest him directly.

Zhu Jianyan nodded slightly:
"Any other questions?"

Lei Hong quickly raised the most important questions, and directly took a notebook to record.

Zhu Jianyan explained his requirements in turn:
"Since it is still in the stage of divergent thinking, we can do more in the design draft.

"In terms of office buildings, we can design some single buildings, multi-storied buildings, and buildings with courtyards.

"Taixi people also have good attainments in building buildings, and you can refer to them appropriately.

"In the office building, a dedicated office area and even a residential area should be set up for the emperor.

"There must be conference rooms and auditoriums directly connected to the emperor's office and residence.

"It is convenient to live directly in the office building for office work and meetings in case of emergency.

"One could also consider a design that blends the office building with the palace building.

"Although the palace in the ceremony area must ensure solemnity, it does not need to completely copy the Forbidden City.

"The building distance can be adjusted appropriately and appropriate trees can be planted.

"The focus of the Ministry of Construction is on the design of imperial office buildings and ceremonial palaces..."

New palaces and new buildings are big things, and big things for the emperor.

So Zhu Jianyan arranged and discussed with Lei Hong for most of the morning.

Until noon, Lei Hong left Zhu Jianyan's office and returned to his office building.

After lunch, in the afternoon, I started to organize people to do draft design.

Ten days later, Lei Hong brought a stack of preliminary simple design plans and met Zhu Jianyan again after the morning court.

Put the pre-screened drafts with the best features on the top, and put them together on the conference table in front of Zhu Jianyan.

Standing by the side, Lei Hong first introduced the current design ideas to Zhu Jianyan:

"Your Majesty, according to the calculations and evaluations of the engineers, without considering the cost and geological conditions, we can build buildings with a total height of more than 400 meters..."

"400 meters—"

Zhu Jianyan was obviously surprised.

I originally thought that the 200 meters negotiated by my son and my father was exaggerated enough.

Unexpectedly, the assumptions of people in engineering are even more outrageous.

This proposes a maximum height twice as high as both of them envisioned:
"It's almost a mile away!
"Can a building of this height really be built? How to build it?

"Is a tall building of this height strong enough? Will it be twisted or even collapsed by the storm?"

Lei Hong went on to introduce:
"If the geological conditions are right, buildings that really reach 500 meters, that is, one mile, can be built.

"Especially in the capital hall used for imperial ceremonies, a tall platform can be poured with reinforced concrete downstairs.

"As long as the base area is large enough, even if the base is more than 200 meters high, it can still be as stable as Mount Tai.

"The building itself is not a problem, but as long as the core tube is thick enough, it can remain stable at a height of 500 meters.

"Engineering personnel have done careful calculations and simulations.

"Chen and others can be sure that the latest construction technology we have mastered can realize the construction of a 500-meter-high building.

"Of course, if you don't build a high enough platform and build a straight building with the same upper and lower depths, it is still uncertain whether it can remain stable above 400 meters.

"So if you want to build a 400-meter-high building, you should prepare a 100-meter foundation for insurance and prudence.

"The design schemes completed by the engineers are all planned in this way."

After listening to these introductions, Zhu Jianyan finally accepted this fact.

Probably it was Daming's policy of restricting high-rise buildings, which made these engineers who wanted to build high-rise buildings very frustrated.

So this time I took out the most exaggerated ideas.

But Zhu Jianyan immediately had a new question:

"But... the height of 400 meters is still too exaggerated.

"Even if there is a 100-meter platform below, the platform is completely solid and has a height of 300 meters above.

"Such a huge space... is it really appropriate to make it into a single single-story hall?

"The key is, can it be realized? A height of 300 meters on a single floor?"

Lei Hong immediately said very frankly:

"Your Majesty's concern is indeed a big problem encountered by craftsmen in the design.

"Currently we have no experience in the design and construction of single-storey ceilings over 50 meters high.

"For the official ceremonial palace of the imperial court, it is difficult for us to fully utilize the space in the palace.

"Unless the functions of the Taimiao, Fengtian Hall, Wenhua Hall, Wuying Hall and other palaces are stacked up and down, and all of them are placed in such an extremely huge building...

"Or refer to the experience of the Thai and Western people in building churches, put the height of the main body of the building in a relatively reasonable range, and build towers around to increase the maximum height.

"Regarding these two ideas, we have made design plans, please see your majesty..."

Zhu Jianyan looked down at the design drawings in front of him, mainly those design graphics.

Lei Hong continued to introduce:
"The first set of proposals is a multi-layered hall.

"At the same time, it adopts the design that the palace and the central court office building are integrated.

"This is the most extreme compact solution.

"The first of this group of proposals is a design in which the tallest 420-meter hall is in the center, and the office areas of the government offices of various departments of the imperial court are placed on both sides of the hall in the form of auxiliary buildings.

"The civil service system can be arranged on the east side, and the military attache, judicial and inspection departments can be arranged on the west side.

"The second plan is to directly construct the office building in the form of a platform and place it under the main hall.

"That is to say, instead of making the platform solid, it is partially hollow.

"From the outside, the base of the main hall is 80 to [-] meters high.

"However, the interior of the platform is actually the yamen of various ministries of the imperial court.

"The second set of proposals is a relatively traditional design.

"The hall is still stacked, and the office building and the hall are built independently.

"But between the main hall and the office building, a certain form of connection and cooperation is maintained.

"The office building can surround the main hall, but the two sides are connected by corridors.

"The main design plan is placed on both sides of the main hall, surrounded by surroundings, standing in front and other directions.

"The third group of options is the most traditional.

"The main palace functions are still separated, and the office buildings are all built separately.

"At the same time, the height of the palace should not be maximized, and the maximum height should be set at 200 meters.

"Taking Fengtian Temple as an example, first build a 64-meter-high platform, and build a 120-meter-high hall above the platform.

"The office building is outside the palace wall in front, and it can be designed as a series of buildings or as a branch.

"The height ratio between the base of the platform and the main body of the main hall can also continue to be adjusted.

"The fourth group of proposals is based on the designs of Taixi churches and palaces.

"First of all, the main palaces are integrated into one, with a 64-meter-high platform and a 64-meter-high main hall built on it.

"Several high and low towers were built in the front, back, left, and right to separately worship the most important ancestors."

Zhu Jianyan flipped through the design plan in his hand, listened to Lei Hong's introduction, and asked some detailed questions from time to time.

Finally, from these plans, I selected a few that I was most satisfied with.

At the same time, different parts of several different schemes were combined to put forward new design requirements.

Let Lei Hong go back to complete the recombination plan, and make further refinements together with the original several pre-selected plans.

This time the design took a long time, and it was not basically completed until 20 days later, and it took a month to fix the details.

When I showed it to Zhu Jianyan again, preparations for the southern tour had come to an end.

Zhu Jianyan flipped through several design drawings:
"Xiyi's method is indeed the most convenient to build, and it is likely to be the most economical in terms of cost.

"But just piled up like this, it's not very comfortable in terms of perception.

"A separate tower is built for each generation of ancestors, although it is similar to the pattern of the Taimiao before Jiajing.

"However, it will be very troublesome to add another tower for each generation in the future.

"Building more towers in advance is not a good sign...

"So don't use this plan.

"Although this method of building various government offices inside the base is the most space-saving, I still think it is suitable.

"It is likely to give civil and military officials a feeling of living in an underground palace, so don't use it.

"If the base of the palace is too high, it should not be easy to coordinate in terms of perception.

"In the future, no higher city walls will be specially built, and it is impossible for a normal city wall to be higher than the platform foundation.

"If the entire hall is above the palace wall, especially if it can be seen from a distance, it may feel a bit abrupt.

"Instead of building a separate foundation for the palace, it is better to directly build the place where the terrain is already high.

"However, even if these plans and design methods are excluded, the remaining few still have various problems.

"However... these designs have to be reviewed by the Supreme Emperor, so let's wait until Nanjing.

"Lei Qing, let's go back and make some preparations. When we arrive in Nanjing, we will meet with the Royal Engineering Company to confirm the survey results.

"After I discuss it with my father, let's discuss how to build new palaces and buildings."

(End of this chapter)