False Hip: The Composite Roof of the San Chuan Hall

Show the entrance hall of a Taiwanese temple crowned with the composite roof form in which a small hip-and-gable roof is inserted on top of a wider swallowtail-ridged roof, so the front elevation reads as two roofs stacked and interlocking. Render the lower roof spanning the full three-bay width with its swallowtail ridge sweeping up at both ends, and the smaller upper roof sitting centrally above the middle bay, its own ridge also decorated and its eaves overlapping the lower plane. Show the junction between them handled with a small triangular gable face filled with cut-and-paste ornament. Detail both ridges densely with ceramic dragons, immortals and floral scrolls in saturated cobalt, jade and coral. Lay warm orange barrel tiles throughout. Below, show the three-bay facade with stone dragon columns and carved wall panels. Shoot straight on from slightly low so the roof stacking is unmistakable. Photorealistic, ornate, colourful and complex, bright clear daylight.