SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, BUILDING AND DESIGN

CENTRE FOR MODERN ARCHITECTURE STUDIES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA BACHELOR OF SCIENCE (HONORS) ARCHITECTURE

Asian Architecture [ARC 2234] Project 1 Case Study Paper

Topic : The reinterpretations of traditional Chinese courtyards in modern housing design in China

Bernard Ling Ching Chiong 0301892

Abstract

The traditional Chinese courtyard in China has been the most influential in courtyard design and planning. The traditional courtyard has a lot of values and meanings behind it but all these have been reinterpreted differently in the modern courtyard design. The purpose of this paper is to find out the reinterpretations of traditional Chinese courtyard in modern housing designs in China. This paper aims to discuss the characteristics of traditional Chinese courtyard and its relationship with Feng Shui as well as how the Feng Shui elements are being translated into the modern design, how is the modern design different from the traditional elements. In assisting this paper, literature reviews like books, journals and thesis have been taken to study to understand this topic better. Case studies also play an important role in assisting this paper. Former Residence of Soong Chin Ling and Vertical Courtyard Apartment in Hang Zhou China are two case studies that were conducted. The purpose of choosing 2 case studies is to analyze the difference between the two cases. The traditional courtyard in China is identified by its layout of having 4 buildings surrounding a central courtyard. It also uses the concept of Yin and Yang in the arrangement of layout of the courtyard as well as to give positive energy and the emphasis between heaven, earth and other people. In the modern century, issues like increase of land value and limited space causes the floor plan design to be more compact and less empty space. Therefore, modern design could not afford to waste a big piece of land just for courtyard purposes. Efforts made to replace n reinterpret the traditional courtyard is the vertical garden and roof garden. The elements of Feng Shui were interpreted differently in the modern design. While traditional courtyard uses natural elements to represent the five elements of feng-shui (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water), the modern courtyard uses decorative elements to represent them. While the traditional courtyard focuses on the harmonious living between heaven, earth and people, the modern courtyard placed its focus on the sustainable living by having the vertical garden to provide better air quality as well as Feng Shui elements to provide positive energy for wealth. Hence, it has come to a conclusion that the modern courtyard has been reinterpreted and is different from the traditional courtyard in China. Some of the elements are still there but the meaning and value of it has been changed due to various reasons.

Table of Contents
1. Introduction

Page

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2. Body

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1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

What are the characteristics of Traditional Chinese courtyards? Why are courtyards important to be translated into modern housing designs? Why traditional Chinese courtyard is declined in modern design? What are the ways of adopting traditional Chinese courtyards into modern housing designs? How is the use of feng shui in traditional courtyard being reinterpreted in the modern courtyard design?

3. Case Study 4. Conclusion

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5. References/ Bibliography ----------------------------------------------------------------------13 6. List of Figures --------------------------------------------------------------------------------14

1. Introduction
This case study paper addresses how traditional Chinese courtyard has been used in China since the Yuan Dynasty and has been a significant Chinese dwelling in ancient China. The modern housing design has been trying to adopt the usage of courtyards by reinterpreting them and coming up with ideas like vertical gardens, roof garden and green walls. This study will talk about how the idea has been translated and what is the significance of the modern courtyard designs. The traditional Chinese courtyard house was the simple unit of the city and the arrangement of the courtyard houses are base on a grid system (Figure 1). (Ping, 1998, p2) Courtyard houses are easily identified by its layout of having 4 building surrounding a central courtyard. Architects have been trying to design sustainable buildings by adding greenery. It is important to have courtyard nowadays because it benefits us by providing fresh air and also helps to dampen noise pollution. The modern courtyard housing has been turned into more of a garden type and has more usage in terms of aesthetics. Every vertical garden have its own unique design and selection of plant which cause them to have different benefits. This case study paper will address the cultural values of the courtyard housings by responding to the following questions:1. 2. 3. 4. 5. What are the characteristics of Traditional Chinese courtyards? Why are courtyards important to be translated into modern housing designs? Why traditional Chinese courtyard is declined in modern design? What are the ways of adopting traditional Chinese courtyards into modern housing designs? How is the use of Feng Shui in traditional courtyard being reinterpreted in the modern courtyard design?

Figure 1. Courtyard houses in China

2. Body
1.
What are the characteristics of Traditional Chinese courtyards houses?

The traditional Chinese courtyard houses are called the Siheyuan which is a historical type of residence that was usually found all over China, most well known in Beijing. Siheyuan are sometimes mentioned as quadrangle house which means a courtyard surrounded by four buildings.Traditional courtyard houses was created since thousands years ago and was the most significant type of residential during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and the Qing dynasty (1644-1911). When Beijing was the capital of China, it was the political and cultural center for the country. (Ping, 1998, p2). These courtyard houses are lived by a large family consisting of more than two generations. However, the courtyard house has only one storey and has a huge courtyard.

Siheyuan is known for having 4 buildings surrounding a courtyard and they are normally placed along an axis of north-south and east-west. In Figure 2 shows the basic layout of a traditional courtyard house. The courtyard is located in the middle of the plan indicates its importance as a central gathering space for the people.The building located at the north facing the south is the main building of principle room whereas the buildings facing east and west are the side houses or also known as the wing rooms.(Ping, 1998) The three buildings are linked a by beautifully ornamented pathways. This passage helps to prevent sunlight to shine into the buildings and also acts as a place to view the courtyard during the night.

Figure 2. A courtyard house having three one yard as the central axis

One the other hand, the large central space is also one of the characteristics of traditional Chinese courtyard. The large central space is the main courtyard basically acts as a gathering space for family to unite with nature. The feng-shui concept environment of Chinese courtyard houses have many factors, such as spiritual, physical and temporal as well as spatial, reaching from sky to earth and from human life to nature. The major goal of feng-shui is to find a way to live in harmony with heaven, earth, and other people whereas the courtyard represents earth and the open sky represent heaven. The courtyard provided the family great separation from the outside, but little privacy inside in order to maintain social control within the family. 5

Besides, all the rooms around the courtyard have large window that opens to the courtyard (Figure 3) and have no windows at all or very small windows at the back wall facing the street. (Figure 4) There are large window that opens to the courtyard because family members get in contact with each other as well as get in contact with nature like the plants, rocks and flowers that are placed in the courtyard. In addition, there are no windows at the back wall facing the street because the Grandfather acts as the emperor in family. He controls everything around the house and according to traditional Chinese family rules, members of the large family, particularly women, were forbidden to make contact outside the walls. (Ping, 1998, p10) That is why the walls facing the street have no windows and the wall has a cool and boring surface.

Figure 3. Rooms around the courtyard with large windows

Figure 4. Back wall facing street with no windows

2.

Why are courtyards important to be translated into modern housing designs?

Modern housing designs such as vertical garden, roof garden and green wall is been built because courtyards or gardens is important. Many architects nowadays are investigating ways that courtyards can helps to improves cities and homes. Vertical garden helps to improves the air around and provide greenery. It also insulates heat and cool building. Vertical garden enhances visual appearances and also benefit the real estate by increases its value. (Figure 5) On the other hand, roof garden is a courtyard in a home or high rise building can provide privacy, a resting area from everyday life, and a safe place for children to play. Besides resting area and safe place for children, it also have the decorative benefit, entertaining opportunities, temperature control, hydrological benefits, environments or corridors for nature, and roof plantings may provide food. (Figure 6) In addition, green walls have the same benefit as vertical garden but it has one unique advantage is that it can acts as an sound proof barrier from outside noises. (Figure 7)

Figure 5. Vertical garden

Figure 6. Roof garden

Figure 7. Vertical wall

3.

Why traditional Chinese courtyard is declined in modern design?

Traditional Chinese courtyard, Siheyuan is built in ancient times. That is why they do not need to bear in mind that facility like water supply, drainage, pipe gas, electricity and telephone cables are the basic need of the modern society. Many Siheyuan dont consider that building in modern facility will compromise their believe of feng-shui around the Siheyuan. That is why they live in an olden ways without electricity. As time goes by, people started to build basic structures like toilet, kitchen for tourist purposes to earn benefits from the Siheyuan. The tourist is to be able to capture the feng-shui of the Siheyuan when they visit. The courtyard harmony has not been forgotten and they try to remain the feng-shui around the Siheyuan without changing too much to the building. Traditional Chinese courtyard needs a huge space to be built. Due to the vertical developments that have been happening to the residential buildings, huge courtyards are not possible. (Figure 8) Spaces are getting lesser each day and population is getting higher. Many cant afford to have their courtyard built in their own houses because lack of space and also need to spend a huge amount of money. Houses below four stories are not permitted to be built in Beijing and that is why many high riser building and apartment are been built to save space in Beijing. (Figure 9) Apartments and condominiums start to become a practical and affordable option to many. Taking away original traditional Chinese courtyard means they directly take away the harmony among people that happens in the courtyard as well as the human interaction with nature.

Figure 8. Siheyuan demolished

Figure 9. Development in Beijing

4.

What are the ways of adopting traditional Chinese courtyards into modern housing designs?

Due to the vertical developments of housing in Beijing, it is not possible to have a large courtyard like the traditional Chine courtyard. Therefore, people came out with ways of adopting the elements of the traditional Chinse courtyard. One of the things that can be directly adopted into the modern design is the use of Feng Shui. As Chinese people believes a lot that the Feng Shui of a building could bring them luck and wealth, it is also an ideal way to translate it into the modern courtyard design. For example, the vertical garden which is one of the most popular replacement of traditional courtyard for apartments, adopts the use of orientation and position of Qi flow of Feng Shui. By adopting these Chinese elements of Feng Shui in the modern design, they feel less strayed away from what the ancestors have created for them in the traditional courtyards. The position of the vertical garden that faces north gives a good career and path in life. Therefore, people who would want to build a good career line would normally place their vertical gardens facing north. In contrast to that, vertical Garden that faces east provides good health and family relationship. The roof garden however, adopted different approach of Feng Shui. The roof garden is an open-area garden therefore having the contact with the sky. This element is simlilar to the traditional courtyard in which the courtyard is outdoor, opened to the sky. The sky represents heaven and by relating that into the roof garden, it seems to bring heaven closer to earth. Furthermore, types of plants can be also associated with the Feng Shui Elements. Different colors of plants represent different elements of Feng Shui from the 5 elements of Feng Shui which are wood, fire, earth, metal and water.

5.

How is the use of feng-shui in traditional courtyard being reinterpreted in the modern courtyard design?

Traditional courtyard basically uses the position of the layout of the Siheyuan to express the later heaven sequence. (Figure 10) The Later Heaven Sequence were derived the eight feng-shui diagrams showing possible ways of arranging Qi for a house. For each diagram there are eight positions: four favorable ones where living Qi abounds and four inauspicious ones where evil Qi may rise. According to feng-shui, the entrance and master bedrooms should occupy places that are favorable to living Qi, while the toilet and the kitchen, which are able to suppress evil Qi, and should be located in the chambers where evil Qi might rise (Yao, 1744; Wang, 1968; Wu, 1985; Lee, 1991). In modern courtyard design uses colours as Expression of five elements because of the lack of space. The colour green and brown represent wood, red and yellow represent fire, brown represent earth, grey and white represent metal and lastly blue represent water. On the other hand, Siheyuan uses natural element to represent the eight elements of feng-shui of the later heaven sequence such as plants, trees, water, earth, and sky. In vertical 9

garden, they use the shapes of object around the house to represent the five elements of fengshui. The rectangular shaped object represent wood, triangular shaped represent fire, square shaped represent earth, round shaped represent metal and wavy represent water. Many uses decorative items in vertical garden to show feng-shui and to give good flow of Qi. In addition, the siheyuan feng shui arranges Qi as the respect to orientation and position of the building. Courtyard houses are developed by the Chinese people to represent small universes. It was believed by the Chinese that the earth looked like the shape of the roof covering the earth (Ping, 1998). The earth below was believed to reflect the heaven above. Stars and rivers were the reflection of the Milky Way. These could be seen as a translation into the traditional courtyard houses by having a courtyard that opens to the sky as a representation of heaven. The square courtyard dwellings symbolizes the earth and the central opening of the courtyard is a place where family members come together to interact along with the 5 elements of feng shui. Productive cycle also known as creative cycle sequence the five elements cycle from water nurtures wood, wood nurtures fire, fire nurtures earth, earth nurtures metal and metal nurtures water. (Ping, 1998) Water is weakens by earth, earth is weakens by wood, wood is weakens by metal, metal is weakens by fire and fire is weakens by water. Major goals of traditional Chinese courtyard houses are to live in a harmonious environment along with heaven, earth and people whereas modern housing courtyard goals of feng-shui is to bring in positive energy and wealth for the family.

Figure 10. The later heaven sequence

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3.Case Study
The case study Ive chosen is one example of apartment in Beijing that uses vertical courtyard to replace the traditional courtyard in the olden days. In this apartment, each residence will have their own courtyard in their unit. The vertical courtyard garden helps to improves the air around and provide greenery. It also insulates heat and cool building. This Vertical garden also enhances visual appearances. There are also feng shui elements being used in the development of the vertical courtyard in this apartment. The materials used represent the five elements of feng shui : earth, fire, water, metal and wood. The orientation of the vertical courtyard also faces north and south to provide positive Qi flow of good wealth and carrer as well as good health and family relationship.

Figure 11. Vertical Courtyard Apartment

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4.Conclusion

In conclusion, the traditional courtyard has been a great living environment in the olden days but due to the vertical development of the modern society, these courtyards are not able to be built in the modern housing designs in Beijing. To solve that proble, adoptation and reinterpretation of the traditional courtyard house have been made to integrate some of the traditional elements into the modern courtyard housing designs. Architects have been trying to design sustainable buildings by adding greenery and therefore the modern housing design has been trying to adopt the usage of courtyards by reinterpreting them and coming up with ideas like vertical gardens, roof garden and green walls. These replacements have taken the use of Feng Shui elements from the traditional courtyard. As Chinese people believes a lot that the Feng Shui of a building could bring them luck and wealth, it is also an ideal way to translate it into the modern courtyard design. It is important to have courtyard nowadays because it benefits us by providing fresh air and also helps to dampen noise pollution. Every vertical garden have its own unique design and selection of plant which cause them to have different benefits. The reintepretations of traditional courtyard by focusing on the elements of Feng Shui has made it feel less strayed away from what the ancestors have created in the traditional courtyards.

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5.References
Annotated Bibliography Chen, L. 2009. Reinterpretation of Traditional Chinese Courtyard House. [e-book] Knoxville: University of Tennessee. pp. 2-24. Available through: Google Scholar http://trace.tennessee.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1073&context=utk_gradthes [Retrieved: 21 Sep 2013]. Easyverticalgardening.com. 2013. Types of Vertical Gardens | Easy Vertical Gardening. [online] Available at: http://easyverticalgardening.com/types-of-vertical-gardens/ [Retrieved: 21 Sep 2013]. Gardendesign.com. 2013. Vertical Gardens article | Garden Design. [online] Available at: http://www.gardendesign.com/vertical-gardens-0 [Retrieved: 21 Sep 2013]. Kain, A. 2013. BEIJING OLYMPIC GREENS: China's Green Facade of Shrubbery. [online] Available at: http://inhabitat.com/beijings-facade-of-shrubbery/ [Retrieved: 22 Sep 2013]. NaturalNews. 2013. So what's vertical gardening all about? 13 Reasons to grow your vegetables in a vertical garden. [online] Available at: http://www.naturalnews.com/037641_vertical_gardening_vegetables_food_production.html [Retrieved: 22 Sep 2013]. Ping, X. 1998. Feng Shui Models Structured Traditional Beijing Courtyard Houses. Beijing: Journal of Architectural and Planning Research Shanshan, L. 2010. THE PAST, CONTEMPORARY AND FUTURE UTILITY OF BEIJING COURTYARDS. [e-book] Urbana, Illinois: pp. 18-36, 42-49. Available through: Ideals Illinois https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/16776/2_Lu_Shanshan.pdf?sequence=5 [Retrieved: 15 Sep 2013]. Tchi, R. (2010, March 3). Feng Shui Five Elements Theory: Productive and Destructive Cycles of Elements. Retrieved October 10, 2013 from FengShui About website : http://fengshui.about.com/od/thebasics/qt/element_cycles.htm Wang H (1882) Ten writings on Yang house feng-shui. Shanghai: The Sweep Leaves Mountain House. Wu, C. 2009. Charms of Classical Chinese Gardens. China: China Intercontinental Press. Wu M (1985) The application of I Ching and geography to Yang house feng-shui. Taipei: Wooling Publishing Co., Ltd.

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6. List of Figures
Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8 Figure 9 Figure10 Figure 11 Courtyard houses in china A courtyard house having three one yard as the central axis Rooms around the courtyard with large windows Back wall Facing Street with no windows Vertical garden Roof garden green walls Siheyuan demolished Development in Beijing The Later Heaven Sequence Vertical Courtyard Apartment

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