Conversation with Chen Kuan Lee about roof profiles (1947)

We spoke about the usability and further development of the Chinese roof profile in Chinese buildings today. How did this roof, this remarkable Chinese roof, which gives Chinese architecture a special signature against which other features pale into insignificance, come about? It is a saddle roof with an exaggerated rounding of the ridge and wide out-swinging eaves, and the surface is raised to the highest shine through the intensity of gleaming glazed tiles which display all the colours of nature: light and dark red, lemon yellow and golden yellow, sky blue and peacock blue, rare green and brown glazes of every kind. Through the wave profile of the over- and under-lapping tiles – which all adds to the formal effect – it survives every kind of weather.