连达

Lian Da is a Chinese writer and illustrator who works on traditional Chinese architecture; public information about him is limited, and his dates of birth and death, native place and educational background are not clearly recorded. Judging from the four works held in the collection, he has long focused on Chinese ancient architecture, especially the vernacular heritage of Shanxi. In Search of Rural Ancient Buildings in Southern Shanxi explores village temples, stages and dwellings through field visits, while A Preliminary Survey of Ancient Buildings in the Jin and Fen River Regions: Illustrated Edition of Architectural Remains records surviving structures there in hand-drawn form. His writing usually combines on-site investigation, explanation of architectural forms and hand-drawn sketches, giving equal weight to text and image in a plain style that attends to details such as eaves, beams and columns; his books sit between history reading and design titles. The two-volume hand-drawn collectors' edition and the boxed set of Chinese ancient architecture continue this approach of drawing plus commentary, making ancient buildings accessible to general readers.