Build for the Living： Stone Buildings of the Yuan Dynasty

It is easy to fred an association between stone architecture and the afterlife in pre-modern China, given that most architecture of brick and stone was used only for mortuary monuments. People in pre-modern China may have believed that timber architecture was for the deceased. The fact that stone timber architecture further buttresses for the living while stone architecture was architecture often was designed to imitate the dominance of timber, both structurally and aesthetically, in the architectural history of pre-modern China. This article focuses on several stone buildings that were built during the Yuan dynasty （1271-1368） for daily religious activities and were rare exceptions to the normative association of stone architecture with the afterlife. Through the study of the structure, decorative motifs and history of these stone buildings, I determine whether they were built to reflect the tradition of imitation timber architecture or were an exception to the dominance of timber architecture. I investigate how these stone buildings should be contextualized in the history of Yuan as well as the history of Chinese architecture.

Laying a Solid Foundation,Expanding Development Space——Foundation Stone Laying Ceremony of ZTE R&D Building Held in Shenzhen

Earth was broken for the ZTE R&D Building at theheadquarters on October 28, 2003. Hou Weigui,President of ZTE, delivered a speech on the cere-mony. He said:“As part of the development strate-gy of ZTE, the new building will play an importantrole in improving the overall R&D arrangement andthe environment of production and R&D, reducingthe operating cost and enhancing the image of thewhole company.”The R&D building will be the Shenzhen R&D

The Geological,Petrographical and Engineering Properties of Rhyolitic Tuffs(Can Stone)in Can-Etili Area(Canakkale),NW Turkey:Their Usage as Building and Covering Stones

In this study, the geological, petrographical properties of rhyolitic tuffs exposed around ?an-Etili in the Biga Peninsula (NW Turkey) which are pyroclastic products of Late Oligocene-Early Miocene aged ?an Volcanism were investigated, also physical and mechanical characteristics of tuffs introduced and tried to determine the impact on engineering properties of petrographical features. In the region, rhyolitic tuffs called locally “?an stone” have been used as covering and building stones for many years. These tuffs generally have light yellowish, beige, brown colored and different patterns with light yellowish, cream, reddish and brown colors caused by iron oxidation of hydrothermal alteration. They are preferred as coatings and decorative stone with these patterns. ?an stone which consisted of rhyolitic composition, lithic and locally crystalline tuffs has compact structure. The mineral assemblage of tuffs is mainly composed of quartz, plagioclase, rarely biotite, amphibole (hornblende) phenocrystals and opaque mineral with particles of volcanic glass and lithic fragments. Not only petrographical and geochemical analyses were carried out but also standard rock mechanic tests (unit weight, specific gravity, porosity, water absorption and uniaxial compressive strength) on rhyolitic tuffs samples collected from four different quarries (Hoppa Hill, Halilaga, Uzunalan, Dereoba). Simple regression analysis of test results obtained from four different regions and correlations were found good correlation between engineering proper- ties and the petrographical and chemical properties of rhyolitic tuffs.

Geological and Engineering Properties of Granite Rocks from Aqaba Area, South Jordan

Jordanian granitic rocks (JG) are highly distributed and available in huge quantities in south Jordan, Aqaba area. Granite in south Jordan (JG) is belonging to Aqaba granite complex. This study has been carried out to investigate geological and engineering properties of JG from Aqaba vicinity, south Jordan, in addition to identify and classify the different granitic rocks. 27 random samples of JG were collected from different quarries in three locations from the study area to investigate their characterization. Engineering properties of JG were tested and investigated using ultra sonic velocity test, abrasion test, flexural strength, specific gravity test, and compressive strength test. Engineering tests results show that JG has metal disk abrasion less than 21 mm, flexural strength of 16.9 Mpa, average dry specific gravity of 2.69 and very low absorption while the compressive strength results range between 60 to 90 Mpa. The results show that the engineering characterization of JG is complying with local and international specifications and standards used for classifying the decorative and building granite stones.